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Cornelia Weigand had strongly criticized the crisis management of the flood disaster in the Ahr valley
Photo: Thomas Frey / dpa
The Rhineland-Palatinate district of Ahrweiler has a new district administrator: Cornelia Weigand, the non-party mayor of the municipality of Altenahr, secured the post at the first attempt.
As the Ahrweiler district administration announced on its website, Weigand received 50.2 percent of the votes according to the preliminary final result.
The first district councilor Horst Gies (CDU) took second place with 28.2 percent of the votes.
Weigand has been mayor of the Altenahr association of municipalities for around two and a half years.
The 50-year-old biologist became known nationwide after the flood disaster because she strongly criticized the crisis management.
According to her own statements, she has lived in the Ahr Valley since 2013.
Voter turnout was reported at 48.1 percent.
The CDU Rhineland-Palatinate admitted Gies' defeat on Twitter and congratulated Weigand on her election.
Investigations against previous District Administrator Pföhler continue
Gies has been a member of the Mainz state parliament since 2011 and has represented the previous district administrator of Ahrweiler, Jürgen Pföhler (CDU), since August 2021, who retired at the end of October.
Pföhler was criticized after the devastating flood disaster in mid-July.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, many communities were devastated, especially in the Ahr Valley, and 134 people lost their lives.
In August, Pföhler announced that he would no longer be able to hold office due to illness.
He later applied for permanent disability, according to a spokeswoman for the Directorate of Supervision and Services.
The Koblenz public prosecutor's office launched investigations against him and another member of the crisis team at the beginning of August.
The reason given was the initial suspicion of negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm through omission.
atb/AFP