Lewentz is still under pressure

Created: 2022-10-06Updated: 2022-10-06 7:02 PM

The interior minister of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate Roger Lewentz (SPD) as a witness in the investigative committee of the state parliament on the flood disaster in the Ahr valley.

© Sascha Ditscher/dpa/archive image

Interior Minister Lewentz is still under pressure because of the flood disaster.

The CDU and the Free Voters request a special session of the state parliament.

The AfD even calls for a vote of no confidence.

And the prime minister stands by her minister.

Mainz – The CDU and the Free Voters want to request a special session of the state parliament on how Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD) should deal with the flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate.

This was announced by the chairmen of the two opposition factions, Christian Baldauf (CDU) and Joachim Streit (free voters), on Thursday evening in Mainz.

This requires 34 votes, said Baldauf.

CDU (31) and Free Voters (6) together have 37 seats in the state parliament.

The application should go to the President of the State Parliament that evening, who, according to previous practice, has a maximum of seven days to convene the special plenary session, said Baldauf.

He expects Lewentz and Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) to explain themselves to the public at the special session.

The third opposition faction, the AfD, is demanding a vote of no confidence in the state parliament.

"This minister has clearly failed in his responsibility," said deputy AfD parliamentary group leader Jan Bollinger.

Should Lewentz and Prime Minister Dreyer not take the consequences, the state parliament would have to do so in a special session.

The CDU and the Free Voters have not yet supported a vote of no confidence, but the CDU, like the AfD, is demanding Lewentz's resignation.

The Free Voters want to “first give those affected their own freedom to decide whether to resign or not,” said Streit.

Before applying for a vote of no confidence, the hearings of the helicopter crew and the chief of police would first have to be awaited in the investigative committee.

Dreyer again expressed his confidence in her Minister of the Interior.

"The Prime Minister trusts the Minister of the Interior," said the State Chancellery on request.

"He has commented in detail on the events surrounding the said videos together with the Ministry of the Interior and the responsible police chiefs."

Baldauf has been calling for Lewentz's resignation for a long time.

"The Interior Minister had a picture of the situation, he knew that people were in mortal danger," said the opposition leader on Thursday.

The supervisory and service directorate ADD would also have been on 14./15.

July 2021 have to take over the command of operations.

Streit said that after Lewentz's handling of the images and the videos from the flood night that have now surfaced, the question arises as to the necessary sensitivity to correctly assess the situation in other disasters as well.

So far, the Free Voters have been demanding the resignation of State Secretary for the Environment Erwin Manz (Greens) and the head of the ADD state authority responsible for civil protection, Thomas Linnertz.

The background to the demands for Lewentz’s resignation is video footage of a police helicopter from the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley on the evening of July 14, 2021, which has only recently become known not known of his second interrogation by the investigative committee on September 23.

Baldauf criticized that all the people who saw these videos spoke of a catastrophe, but not the Minister of the Interior.

also read

Accident on the A48 near Montabaur: driver seriously injured

After a fatal accident in an amusement park: an eyewitness raises serious allegations against the operator

Lewentz had said: "Everyone is very concerned when you see these pictures." The SPD politician also adds that he does not see the "main decisive elements for this catastrophe" on the videos.

So there are no dead people to be seen.

Light signals from emergency services on site, on the other hand, do.

The videos also did not show any collapsed houses and, apart from one car, none of the more than 9,000 cars destroyed in the flood.

The flood or tsunami wave cannot be seen, nor the destruction of more than 60 bridges and the blockages, i.e. accumulated flotsam - including caravans and interior fittings - on the bridges.

"I see a very large, strong flood here," the minister said.

There is also the accusation that authorities in the rescue of flood victims could have coordinated too little and acted too late.

Lewentz has rejected this for the country.

For the actual extent of the disaster with 134 dead on July 14 and 15, he had no information that evening.

According to Article 99 of the state constitution, a minister would have to resign if the majority of the 101 members of the state parliament voted against him.

The SPD governs in a coalition with the FDP and the Greens.

The traffic light alliance has the parliamentary majority.

dpa