Further criticism of the minister
Greens are said to have asked Spiegel to resign
04/11/2022, 12:17 p.m
Late on Sunday evening, Family Minister Spiegel apologized for going on vacation ten days after the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley. According to a media report, she did this against the will of the board and prominent Greens representatives.
The criticism of Federal Family Minister Anne Spiegel in connection with her vacation in France shortly after the flood disaster on the Ahr continues. According to a media report, the board of the Greens even asked her to resign. According to “Bild”, after a meeting, the party leaders Omid Nouripour, Ricarda Lang, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Economics Minister Robert Habeck and the parliamentary group leaders Britta Haßelmann and Katharina Dröge unanimously agreed that the minister should resign. However, Spiegel rejected this. She wanted another chance from the party. The party cannot dismiss her, only Chancellor Olaf Scholz could.
On Sunday evening, Spiegel then went before the press and apologized for the vacation. Visibly moved and on the verge of tears, she explained the background to her decision at the time to go on vacation to France for four weeks ten days after the flood disaster. The Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of the Environment at the time mentioned her extensive professional commitments, combined with her husband’s health problems and the burdens on her family with four small children caused by the corona pandemic.
However, this did not dispel doubts about her suitability for the office among other politicians. CSU General Secretary Stephan Mayer said on Deutschlandfunk that the appearance of the Green politician also raises the question of whether she can still exercise her office as necessary. Spiegel had apologized for her long vacation trip in an emotional appearance. Mayer said it was commendable that Spiegel had since acknowledged mistakes and apologized. The CSU politician emphasized that he also understands the personal situation of the minister.
FDP General Secretary: CDU politician resigned
The designated FDP Secretary General, Bijan Djir-Sarai, was cautious. “Others must now evaluate what possible conclusions should be drawn from this,” he told RTL/ntv’s “Frühstart” program. The Greens would have to judge whether Spiegel was up to their job. The FDP politician also referred to North Rhine-Westphalia, where the CDU politician Ursula Heinen-Esser resigned as state environment minister because of a vacation trip immediately after the flood disaster – also under pressure from the Greens, as Djir-Sarai noted.
Spiegel has been Minister for Family Affairs in Rhineland-Palatinate since 2016; She was also her party’s top candidate for the state elections in March 2021. In January 2021 she also took over as managing director of the environment department. When the new state government was formed in May 2021, she gave up the family department and became the regular Minister for the Environment. The flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia occurred in mid-July 2021. After the federal elections in autumn, Spiegel became Federal Minister for Family Affairs.
In the past few days, several Union politicians had demanded that Spiegel had to give up their office. CDU leader Friedrich Merz called on Chancellor Scholz to dismiss the minister. Merz accused the Greens politician of having vacations and her own image being more important to her than the fate of the people on the Ahr.