This is not an easy day for Anne Spiegel, she had hoped for something different, everything. When she was here in December, at the Federal President’s in Bellevue Palace, to be sworn in, it looked as if the Green Federal Minister for Family Affairs could become a star of the new traffic light coalition. It turned out differently.
That’s why Anne Spiegel is here again, less than five months later, to be formally dismissed by the Federal President. She’s wearing a dark pants suit, her expression stony. It is heard from those around her that she would have liked to have gone through this procedure behind closed doors, without spectators, without cameras, but that’s not how it works: the public belongs to a ministerial office and the protocol belongs to the Federal President. Exceptions not provided.
It is also customary for the Federal President to recognize his or her merits when dismissing a member of the government. This is not so easy for Anne Spiegel, because of Spiegel’s short term in office, the end will probably be remembered above all: the minister came under pressure when more and more details about her behavior in connection with the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley became known, and incorrect information made it worse the location. Then Spiegel tried to save her position and made intimate details of her family life public. In the end, she urged her own party to resign. Since then there has also been a struggle for the sovereignty of interpretation of Anne Spiegel’s story: there are those who now want to talk about the compatibility of work and family because they think the Spiegel cause is primarily about overloading. And there are others who think this minister simply failed to meet minimum moral standards.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier now has to find words for all of this. And of course he knows that the authority of the office can give these words the weight of a verdict. What should Germany think about Anne Spiegel?
“They had big plans,” says Steinmeier to the failed minister
Steinmeier says he remembers how passionate Anne Spiegel was about her issues when she took office. That she intended to reduce injustice, to better protect women from violence, to modernize family law. “You had big plans for your new ministry and you were aware of your great responsibility.” In the statement the day before she resigned, Spiegel made it clear to many people how difficult it was to reconcile political office and responsibility for the family, says Steinmeier.
That is conciliatory in tone, but the Federal President does not accept the interpretation that this is just a problem of compatibility. Because he also says: “You have admitted mistakes that you made as Minister of the Environment of Rhineland-Palatinate after the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley. And you took the difficult step, took the consequences and resigned as Federal Minister.” For that she deserves respect. Then Spiegel has to step forward and take over her discharge certificate. It’s just a few steps. You can see that they are difficult.
Steinmeier turns to Spiegel’s successor, Lisa Paus. She “always fought for a fairer society,” he says, and enjoys the good reputation of an accomplished financial and economic politician. He wishes her luck. A final photo, a brief touch between predecessor and successor, then they made it. Lisa Paus, who is now beginning. And Anne Spiegel, who now no longer has to endure cameras.