Internal documents of the state government show that high officials advised Armin Laschet and his confidante to a crisis team to coordinate the flood relief. But Düsseldorf decided differently.
from
Christian Wernicke, Düsseldorf
It is day two after the great disaster. On Friday, July 16, shortly before 1 p.m., North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Armin Laschet stood exhausted behind the lectern of the Düsseldorf State Chancellery. Wrinkles furrow his face, he looks into space before he says: “A storm of the century has hit our country.” Laschet repeatedly catches his breath for the next half hour as he draws a first balance sheet of the force of nature. Even after this sentence: “Our country is experiencing a flood disaster of historic proportions.”