The pressure on Federal Family Minister Spiegel to deal with the flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate is growing. The then State Minister for the Environment went on a family vacation shortly after the flood.
In the summer of 2021, Federal Minister for Family Affairs Anne Spiegel (Greens) left for a four-week family vacation in France as Rhineland-Palatinate Environment Minister around ten days after the flood disaster on the Ahr.
The deputy government spokesman, Sebastian Kusche, confirmed a corresponding report by “Bild am Sonntag” on Sunday at the German Press Agency in Mainz, with reference to a statement from the Ministry of the Environment. However, Spiegel was always available, also took part in cabinet meetings via video and managed the daily crisis situations in her ministry, the letter says.
Merz demands dismissal
CDU leader Friedrich Merz called for Spiegel to be fired. «It proves again: For Ms. Spiegel, holidays and her own image were more important than the fate of the people on the Ahr. The Chancellor must dismiss her, »said Merz on Sunday of the «Bild» newspaper. Union parliamentary group manager Thorsten Frei (CDU) told the “Rheinische Post”: “When it comes to responsibility, it is not available or traveled.” He could not imagine that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) “likes such an understanding of the office”.
CSU General Secretary Stephan Mayer told the “Bild am Sonntag”: “Spiegel should take Heinen-Esser as an example and make your office available.” The family policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group, Martin Reichardt, and the Secretary General of the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU, Josef Hovenjürgen, joined the call for his resignation. The opposition in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament, CDU, Free Voters and AfD, renewed their demands for his resignation.
NRW Minister Heinen-Esser gave up
Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU) resigned from her position as North Rhine-Westphalian Environment Minister on Thursday after it became known that the 56-year-old had met other members of the government on the holiday island for a weekend to celebrate her husband’s birthday. The Minister of the Environment has long been criticized for briefly interrupting her stay in Mallorca after the flood on July 15, but then continuing on July 16. She justified this in the state parliament’s investigative committee by saying that she had to bring back her underage daughter and her friends who had stayed on the island.
In the flood disaster in mid-July 2021, more than 180 people died in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, including 134 in the Ahr Valley. Around 750 people were injured and large parts of the infrastructure and thousands of houses were destroyed. Many people still live in emergency or alternative quarters.
Spiegel once interrupted her vacation to get an idea of the situation on August 10, according to the statement by the Ministry of the Environment. The 41-year-old, who is dependent on the summer holidays because of her four children, only went on vacation after a crisis team had been set up in the Ministry for Drinking Water and Wastewater Supply as well as Energy and Waste Disposal.
Criticism of Spiegel already because of SMS change
Spiegel had already come under criticism because she exchanged short messages with her employees directly
had worried about their political image after the flood night. The Greens politician had said in the investigative committee of the state parliament in Mainz that the help for those affected in the Ahr Valley was of the utmost importance to her. “It’s absolutely wrong and I firmly deny that at some point I had a different priority.” In the interrogation that lasted several hours on March 11, unlike Heinen-Esser in the committee in North Rhine-Westphalia, Spiegel “answered every question completely,” said Kusche. He saw no parallel between the two cases.
On the other hand, the CDU state chairman Christian Baldauf said that Spiegel was intolerable as a minister. “A state minister who takes a four-week vacation during this serious disaster sets the wrong priorities.”
“Fleeing Responsibility”
The parliamentary director and chairman of the free voters in the state parliament investigation committee for the flood disaster, Stephan Wefelscheid, said: “Ms. Spiegel fled from responsibility. When will she finally show strength of character, take the consequences and step down?” Her ministry was also responsible for water protection. “The water was contaminated by oil, lubricants, faeces and much more.” A captain belongs on the bridge at such a time, it is not enough to be available on vacation.
Spiegel had taken over the management of the environment ministry in Rhineland-Palatinate in January 2021 after the resignation of her party friend Ulrike Höfken in addition to the family, integration and consumer protection ministries. After winning the state elections in March, the top candidate of the Greens took over the newly tailored climate protection ministry in Mainz – around two months before the flood disaster. Before moving to Berlin, the 41-year-old was also Deputy Prime Minister in Malu Dreyer’s second traffic light government. The SPD politician had decided not to take a summer vacation after the disaster.
Source: Stern
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