After the flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia, a committee of inquiry is supposed to uncover the government's failures.
Weather expert Jörg Kachelmann will also be heard.
Düsseldorf - There were pictures that shook the whole of Germany: The flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia in mid-July destroyed entire villages, 49 people died.
A committee of inquiry in the state parliament should clarify the question of whether the state government did not react correctly to warnings.
The committee started its work on Friday (October 8).
The Swiss meteorologist Jörg Kachelmann, who described Laschet's Interior Minister Reul as a liar, should also appear before the committee.
U committee on the flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia starts work
Three months after the catastrophic flood, the 13 voting members of the committee of inquiry met for the first time.
After the autumn break, the committee will "deal with the question of possible omissions, omissions, misjudgments and possible misconduct by the North Rhine-Westphalian state government and its subordinate authorities," said committee chairman Ralf Witzel (FDP).
In the first session in the state parliament in Düsseldorf, several evidence resolutions were passed in order to request the files necessary for the processing.
A public report on the findings so far is to be submitted to Parliament in the coming spring.
In this legislative period it is already the fifth committee of inquiry in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Weather expert Kachelmann warned of the catastrophe early on - the Düsseldorf state parliament listened to him
According to the will of the opposition parties SPD and Greens, the outgoing Prime Minister Armin Laschet, his designated successor Hendrik Wüst, Interior Minister Herbert Reul and State Chancellor Nathanael Liminski and other members of the government are to be questioned as witnesses.
As the
Kölner Stadtanzeiger
reports, weather expert Jörg Kachelmann is also to be summoned as an expert. The meteorologist caused a stir in July when he described Laschet's Minister Reul as a liar on Twitter. He claimed that the nature of natural disasters is that they cannot be predicted. Kachelmann himself warned in a tweet on July 13th at noon that “it might be time to gradually prepare people for a flood scenario, both officially and in the media”. The following night the floods occurred.
The British hydrology professor Hannah Cloke, who was involved in setting up the EU early warning system EFAS, is to be invited as an expert at the request of the opposition as a further expert.
She accused the German authorities of “monumental” system failure in the flood disaster.
(sf / dpa / AFP)
