Status: 10/19/2022 5:48 p.m
Even after the resignation of Interior Minister Lewentz, the work on the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley continues. Now the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Dreyer is the focus of criticism.
Immediately after the resignation of Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD), it became clear that criticism of the state government’s crisis management will not be silenced. Opposition leader Christian Baldauf (CDU) said in front of television cameras that he was partly to blame for Ms. Dreyer. As head of government, she is also responsible for her entire cabinet.
The opposition is now increasingly focusing on the role of the prime minister. The communication between Malu Dreyer (SPD) and her then interior minister on the night of the flood offers a target for attack. Their short messages have been known for months and have also been a topic in the state parliament’s investigative committee.
“Dear Roger, I’m available”
At 9:44 p.m., the Prime Minister wished Roger Lewentz a “Nice evening!” and then wrote again the next morning at 5:33 a.m.: “Dear Roger, I can be reached”. In the time between these messages, a catastrophe had taken place in the Ahr Valley. The opposition is therefore making serious allegations against the Prime Minister. “After communicating with the interior minister at 9:44 p.m., she made no further attempts to inquire about the further course of the flooding – although she knew that the situation was threatening,” criticized Michael Frisch, chairman of the AfD in the committee of inquiry.
The chairman of the Free Voters, Stephan Wefelscheid, accuses Dreyer: “The fact that she was then obviously no longer available until 5:33 a.m. is not in view of the fact that Roger Lewentz informed her at 0:58 a.m. about the escalating situation understandable.”
Should Dreyer have intervened earlier?
The Trier political scientist Uwe Jun does not speak of an easy situation for the prime minister in view of the allegations by the opposition. For Jun, however, it is not absolutely necessary that the head of government should have taken matters into her own hands. “Usually it’s the case that the specialist departments have to take care of the matter first. The head of government only comes into play when the respective departments declare that they are not in control of the situation.”
The text messages from the evening of the flood disaster suggest that the Rhineland-Palatinate head of government had to assume that the ministers responsible for civil protection and flood forecasts did not exchange information with each other. Because when Dreyer asked Lewentz whether Environment Minister Anne Spiegel was informed, Lewentz replied: “I don’t know at all… If we know more precisely, we will inform you tomorrow about our findings.”
From the opposition’s point of view, that would have been the time when the head of government should have intervened. “Here the Prime Minister should have reacted and pushed for an exchange of information or a briefing,” criticizes CDU parliamentary group leader Christian Baldauf.
Extent only visible the following day?
Now that the communication between Dreyer and Lewentz is again causing criticism, Dreyer’s government spokeswoman refers to the SWR that the Prime Minister gave a detailed statement on this in the committee of inquiry last April. In the committee, Dreyer also testified that on the day of the flood disaster, on the fringes of the state parliament, she had noticed that the state secretaries from the interior and environment ministries were exchanging views on the floods.
Michael Frisch from the AfD criticizes: “Apart from the mentioned observation in the plenum in the early evening, Ms. Dreyer had no indication that there was an exchange between the responsible ministries.”
On the day Interior Minister Lewentz resigned, a journalist asked Dreyer whether, in view of the videos and the mission report of the helicopter crew, she would still agree that the full extent of the disaster could only be recognized on July 15, 2021, the following day?
Dreyer replied that she had always stated that the state government, that she personally could only judge the facts that she had at her disposal. “I think it is undisputed, no matter who is heard, that we were dealing with a natural disaster and flood disaster of a magnitude that we have never experienced before and no one could have imagined that this could happen in Germany.”
The opposition has more questions
This answer is remarkable in that several witnesses in the U-Committee reported the dramatic descriptions they had passed on to the Situation Center of the Ministry of the Interior. The crew of a police helicopter that had flown over the Ahr Valley called the situation center in Mainz at around 11:20 p.m. The message was clear: “You have to bring everything that is police to the Ahr Valley, it’s serious.”
A police officer from the Koblenz police headquarters who was on duty on the evening of the flood assured the committee that she had informed the situation center several times about the catastrophic situation, for the first time around 10:25 p.m. At the latest when this policewoman called, it should have been clear to the situation center of the Ministry of the Interior that a catastrophe of unknown proportions was taking place on the Ahr. That is certain for Stephan Wefelscheid from the Free Voters. “If Malu Dreyer had activated the state government’s crisis management team in good time, this information would not have remained unheard in the situation center.”
The CDU criticizes that Dreyer said several times that there was no evidence of the extraordinary situation on July 14th. “That is simply wrong,” emphasizes Baldauf. The opposition does not rule out inviting the Prime Minister to the U-Committee again. It is quite possible that Dreyer will once again have to face the critical questions of the opposition there.