Ex-Environment Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) is to testify today in the investigative committee of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament on the flood disaster. A few days ago, text message logs from the night of the flood appeared, incriminating Spiegel.
It would probably not have been a pleasant appointment for Federal Minister for Family Affairs Anne Spiegel anyway. But now the former Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of the Environment is under extreme pressure before she will testify in the investigative committee. The short messages published by several media between Spiegel and her employees from the night of the flood and the morning after give the impression that Spiegel was primarily concerned with averting damage to herself and her ministry. Due to positive corona tests, it was recently unclear whether the Green politician in Mainz could testify before the committee.
Ex-Environment Minister Anne Spiegel is scheduled to testify in the flood investigation committee on Friday. SMS logs from the flood night that have appeared in the media are now causing outrage. The Ministry of the Environment protects Spiegel.
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Opposition demands clarification from Spiegel in committee
The chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in the investigative committee, Dirk Herber, demands complete clarification from Spiegel with regard to their crisis management in the night of the flood. In addition, the former Environment Minister had to disclose all contacts with the Ministry of the Interior during the disaster. Media reports pointed to massive misconduct in the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Environment and a fatal misjudgment of the situation. “The impression is growing that the state government failed in the hour of need,” said Heber.
The contents of the short messages also met with severe criticism from representatives of the Free Voters and the AfD in the flood investigation committee. Free voters and the AfD will also have many questions for Spiegel, such as what their ministry at the time warned about before and during the flood disaster. As Minister for the Environment, she was also responsible for the flood reporting service.
The SPD and FDP are holding back on their assessment
The SPD and the Greens were not very pleased that documents from the investigations were again made public with the SMS logs. The chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Nico Steinbach, explained that it is currently forbidden to comment on the publications in order not to further damage the work of the committee of inquiry. The FDP parliamentary group leader Philipp Fernis said: “These are excerpts from individual processes. On Friday the committee will deal comprehensively and properly with the subject.”
Around two months after the tsunami, the main question is how it could have come to this: when did the first warnings come in? Wasn’t there enough evidence of the accident?
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Before Anne Spiegel is questioned, other witnesses have their turn. These include her then office manager and the state secretary of the Ministry of the Environment, who also exchanged messages with Spiegel on the night of the flood and the day after, which have now become public.
Green boss expects clarity from Spiegel’s statement
The federal party of the Greens also hopes to gain clarification from Spiegel’s statement. Green leader Omid Nouripour made that clear: “I assume that she will answer all open questions in the investigative committee of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament this Friday,” Nouripour told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. “I know how stressful the situation must be for the many victims of the flood disaster, and Anne Spiegel knows that too.”
From the point of view of meteorologists, there was enough time to warn
In previous meetings, various meteorologists had made it clear during their interviews with the investigative committee that they believed that July 14 would still have been enough time to evacuate the affected regions in the Ahr Valley in good time. In addition, the responsible authorities should have been aware of the extent of the imminent flood disaster in good time based on the existing warnings.
Representatives of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) stated in the committee that the authority’s warning systems had worked perfectly during the flood disaster. According to the Federal Office, it is not responsible for the warnings themselves. It only publishes warnings sent by local authorities.
In the committee of inquiry into the flood disaster, it has become clear that there are deficits in alarm and action plans in the affected districts. This also applies to the Ahrweiler district, which was particularly hard hit by the flood last July.
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Deficiencies in alert and response plans
When surveying civil protection workers from the affected districts, it became clear that there are deficits in alarm and action plans. This also applies to the Ahrweiler district, which was particularly hard hit by the flood last July. There is still no flood alarm plan coordinated with the municipalities.
The investigative committee should clarify what omissions there were in the flood disaster in mid-July and who is responsible for it. The flood caused devastating damage in the night from July 14 to 15, 2021, 135 people died in Rhineland-Palatinate alone.