Dealing with the tide: the opposition demands the resignation of Spiegel

Created: 03/18/2022, 18:16

Anne Spiegel (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) speaks.

© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/archive image

The criticism of Federal Family Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) does not stop: The then Minister of the Environment of Rhineland-Palatinate failed during the flood disaster and must also draw consequences in the federal government, according to the Union and AfD.

Berlin - Members of the Bundestag from the AfD and the Union call for the resignation of the former Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of the Environment and current Federal Minister for Family Affairs Anne Spiegel (Greens) because of alleged failures during the flood disaster last summer.

"With your behavior, Ms. Spiegel, you have shown that you are not only immoral but also extremely incompetent.

And that's why I'm calling on the Federal Minister for Family Affairs today (...): Resign," AfD politician Sebastian Münzenmaier called out on Friday afternoon in the Bundestag at a debate requested by his parliamentary group on Spiegel's role during the flood.

Several members of the Union, including the former Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner and CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja, accused Spiegel of serious omissions and suggested that she step down as Federal Minister.

A committee of inquiry in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament is currently dealing with the flood disaster.

In this context, Spiegel is accused, among other things, of not making the right decisions to protect people on the evening of the flood on July 14 and instead of having primarily been concerned with their political image.

The current Federal Minister for Family Affairs decisively rejected this presentation last week at a hearing in the committee.

135 people died in the disaster in northern Rhineland-Palatinate.

Spiegel had neither apologized nor admitted to mistakes and on the evening of the flood "only thought of himself" instead of the victims of the flood, explained AfD politician Münzemaier.

CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja accused the Federal Minister of "fleeing from responsibility" during the heated debate in the plenum.

There was also criticism of Spiegel's crisis management from the left-wing faction, but initially no demands for his resignation.

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Spiegel, who stayed away from the debate because of illness, was backed by her own parliamentary group and the other two governing groups, SPD and FDP.

The SPD politician Leni Breymaier spoke of a "slapstick event".

Several members of the traffic light coalition pointed out that the processing of the flood in the Ahr Valley does not belong in the Bundestag and is currently continuing in Rhineland-Palatinate.

The FDP politician Manuel Höferlein accused the AfD of misusing the current hour in the Bundestag for "an unworthy spectacle" instead of talking about real civil protection in flood situations.

dpa