Harsh verdict on traffic light ministers: "Not up to their offices"?
CDU speaks of a “depressing” situation
Created: 04/13/2022, 12:17 p.m
By: Magdalena von Zumbusch
Thorsten Frei © Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Minister Spiegel's resignation gave rise to sharp criticism: "The appearance of the federal government is really cause for concern," says CDU politician Thorsten Frei.
Berlin - The announcement of the resignation of Federal Minister for Family Affairs Anne Spiegel has taken the Union as an opportunity for a critical all-round attack against the red-green-yellow government.
According to CDU politician Thorsten Frei, he finds it "depressing" that various members of the government are not up to their tasks.
Spiegel's resignation – the reason: the announcement of her vacation during the flood in summer 2021
Spiegel announced on Monday that she was resigning from her post after it became known that she had gone on vacation with her family for four weeks after the flood disaster in the summer of 2021.
At that time she was Minister of the Environment in Rhineland-Palatinate - the state was badly affected by the flood in many areas.
During an emotional appearance, Spiegel described the holiday on Sunday as a mistake and expressly apologized for it.
She justified her decision at the time with the burdens on her family caused by her husband's health and the corona pandemic.
Almost three-quarters of Germans think Spiegel's resignation is correct
Almost three-quarters of Germans believe the minister's decision to resign is the right one: 73 percent of those questioned in the survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey on behalf of the
Augsburger Allgemeine
(Wednesday, April 13) expressed this view.
17 percent thought the resignation was wrong, 10 percent are undecided.
After all, more than half of Germans say that top-level politics and family are generally difficult to reconcile
The survey also showed that, in general, Germans find the field of top-level politics difficult to reconcile with family life.
67 percent of those surveyed express the assessment that family and career cannot be easily reconciled in top politics, 22 percent of those surveyed see it differently, 11 percent said they were undecided.
Video: Scholz supports Spiegel's decision to resign
Spiegel's resignation gave rise to criticism: Lauterbach, Lambrecht and Faeser fired at the target
The announcement of Spiegel's resignation gave rise to criticism from the CDU of the government as a whole.
"The appearance of the federal government is really a cause for concern," says the parliamentary manager of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Thorsten Frei, to the
Rheinische Post
.
"It is depressing that several cabinet members are apparently not up to their offices," said Frei's harsh verdict.
Frei then became more specific: he initially turned against Karl Lauterbach and expressed what he believed to be seen in the failure of compulsory vaccination: a failure on the part of the new Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, who was not able to answer a question that was central to Chancellor Olaf Scholz manage to get a majority in Parliament.
Frei accused SPD Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht of alienating her department.
And finally, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) shuts himself off from “the realities of the current wave of refugees”.
Criticism of the Ministers Lambrecht and Faeser has not been expressed by the Union for the first time, according to Saskia Eskens, the allegations are factually unfounded: It is a (in her view only apparently resolved) fundamental problem of the CDU/CSU with women in political top positions.
"It's time for Olaf Scholz to show leadership," demands Frei
Frei sees a solution to the shortcomings of the ministers in strong leadership: "It's time for Olaf Scholz to show leadership," said Frei's demand.
The fact that the government has already mastered numerous challenges in its short reign was not mentioned in the harsh criticism by Frei.
The government was praised for this from within its own ranks, but also from the FDP.
The designated FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai told the "Rheinische Post" that there was no doubt that the traffic light coalition was "absolutely capable of acting".
The government was confronted with numerous political crises from day one and proved with its actions "that it can give quick and reasonable answers to the current challenges".
"I am sure that the work of the governing coalition will continue in the same way in the future." (dpa)
(Traffic lights ahead of big tasks - you can find out what the SPD, Greens and FDP are planning in our political newsletter.)
