After the resignation of NRW Environment Minister Heinen-Esser, the pressure on Federal Family Minister Spiegel increased because of a four-week family vacation after the flood. Spiegel speaks of a mistake.
It was an emotional and unusual appearance: Federal Family Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) apologized late on Sunday evening for her four-week family vacation after the terrible flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate.
The Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of the Environment at the time justified the trip with family reasons and a high professional burden. “It was a mistake that we went on vacation for so long and I apologize for this mistake,” said the 41-year-old in Berlin. Previously, CDU leader Friedrich Merz had called for her dismissal.
«Unusual step»
The 41-year-old did not respond to this, but admitted mistakes in the evening with a halting voice. The Minister for Family Affairs justified her decision to go on vacation – struggling for composure – “in an unusual step” with “private details”. Her four children – one of daycare and three of primary school age – did not get through the pandemic well. And her husband had to avoid stress at all costs after a stroke. Your family needed a vacation.
The additional takeover of the environmental department in Rhineland-Palatinate in January 2021 was too much and brought her family “over the border”. She took a step that “was a mistake afterwards because it was too much.”
The then State Minister for Family, Integration and Consumer Protection took over the Ministry of the Environment after the resignation of Ulrike Höfken (also Greens) because of illegal promotions. At the same time, Spiegel entered the election campaign as her party’s top candidate and, after winning the election in March, took over the newly tailored and larger climate protection ministry in Mainz.
Immediately after the flood, however, she set up a crisis management team and initiated further measures, Spiegel said on Sunday. Balancing her responsibility as a minister and as a mother was difficult for her. During her vacation she was always available, made phone calls and got information. If there had been a reason to cancel the vacation, then she would have done so, Spiegel said.
Sharp criticism from Merz
In the flood disaster in mid-July 2021, more than 180 people died in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, 134 of them in the Ahr Valley. Around 750 people were injured in Rhineland-Palatinate and large parts of the infrastructure and thousands of houses were destroyed. Many people still live in emergency or alternative quarters.
CDU boss Merz said before the statement by the “Bild” newspaper: “It proves again: For Ms. Spiegel, vacation and her own image were more important than the fate of the people on the Ahr. The chancellor must dismiss her.” 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”.
Spiegel is unbearable as a minister, added the CDU state chairman Christian Baldauf. “A state minister who takes a four-week vacation during this serious disaster sets the wrong priorities.” CSU General Secretary Stephan Mayer said: “Spiegel should take Heinen-Esser as an example and make your office available.”
Short message change after high water night
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the local Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser resigned from her position on Thursday after it became known that the 56-year-old minister had met other members of the government for a weekend on the holiday island a few days after the flood disaster to celebrate her birthday man to celebrate.
Spiegel had already come under criticism because she had worried about her political image in a short message exchange with her employees immediately after the night of the flood. 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.”
Source: Stern
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