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Horst Seehofer after a flood disaster: "Centralism does not improve anything here"

2021-07-19T10:57:54.549Z


Should there have been better warnings about the floods in western Germany? FDP and Green Chancellor candidate Baerbock are calling for more competencies from the federal government in the future. But Interior Minister Horst Seehofer thinks this is the wrong way to go.


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Interior Minister Seehofer with Union Chancellor candidate Laschet at the Steinbachtalsperre in the Euskirchen district

Photo: Roberto Pfeil / dpa

Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) does not want to shake the federal structure of disaster control.

This is correct, and has been for decades, said Seehofer during a visit to the Steinbachtalsperre in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Euskirchen.

"Centralism does not improve anything here," said Seehofer and rejected corresponding demands by the FDP and the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock.

The FDP parliamentary group had recently increased the pressure on Seehofer after the catastrophic floods in parts of Germany and requested a short-term special meeting of the interior committee.

According to a letter that is available to the dpa news agency, the meeting will deal with the situation in the flood areas, the procedures of the warning and alerting procedures in the past week and the conclusions of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) and the federal government.

Seehofer, BBK President Armin Schuster and the head of the Technical Relief Organization (THW) should be personally present according to the FDP's request.

The BBK recently admitted that there were problems dealing with warnings - but not with the structures.

"The warning infrastructure was not our problem, but the question of how sensitively the authorities and the population react," said President Schuster.

FDP accuses Seehofer of "system failure"

»The accusation is in the room that knowledge about the impending danger for the flood areas was known well in advance.

Nevertheless, there have been so many deaths and indescribable devastation, «said Deputy FDP parliamentary group leader Stephan Thomae.

The FDP had previously accused Seehofer of "system failure" and called for structural consequences in the Ministry of the Interior.

The minister had to explain what the federal government knew exactly and when - and what was done to ensure disaster protection.

“In addition to relentlessly coming to terms with this catastrophe, we need to be better equipped for the future.

A quick expansion of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief into a nationwide central office for particularly serious accidents would be an important first step, ”said Thomae.

Baerbock also calls for a stronger role for the federal government

In an interview with SPIEGEL, Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock also called for more competencies for the federal government.

"We have to reorganize civil protection, and the federal government must take on more responsibility for this," said Baerbock.

To this end, "the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance must be equipped with a central office function as we know it from the Federal Criminal Police Office in police work."

Rhineland-Palatinate interior minister fears even more deaths

Meanwhile, the Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Roger Lewentz expects even more deaths from the floods in the Ahrweiler district.

The SPD politician told the SWR that when the water ran off and the cellar was emptied, the dead would always be found.

"And there will be more."

Many hundreds of emergency services now searched house by house and bank area by bank area as planned.

According to the police in Koblenz, the number of dead recovered in Rhineland-Palatinate is now 117.

fek / dpa / Reuters

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-07-19

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