Minister Spiegel rejects allegations

Created: 03/11/2022, 21:43

Anne Spiegel at the beginning of her hearing in the committee of inquiry into the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley.

© Arne Dedert/dpa

The former Rhineland-Palatinate Environment Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) told the state parliament's investigative committee on the flood disaster that helping those affected in the Ahr Valley was of the utmost importance to her.

"It's absolutely wrong and I firmly reject the fact that at some point I had a different priority," Spiegel said on Friday in the Mainz state parliament about media reports about an SMS exchange with employees.

Mainz – She was then accused of having been solely concerned with her political image in view of the disaster on July 14, 2021.

"Yes, there was this SMS, and there was also my answer to it," said Spiegel, who is now Federal Minister for Family Affairs.

But it was very important to her that these were only two of thousands of messages the day after.

She wanted to answer her employee briefly, without anything resulting from it afterwards.

"All activities and countless phone calls had only revolved around how we can help and support the local people".

So she organized a crisis team in her ministry and took care of the drinking water supply in the Ahr valley.

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"The ministry is not part of the reporting chain," said Spiegel on the night of the disaster.

"But as a supervisory authority, it is always in the picture about everything that is important." She saw no reason to intervene in functioning processes.

In the flood disaster from July 14 to 15, 2021, 135 people died in northern Rhineland-Palatinate and around 750 were injured.

dpa