“I regret it to this day”
“Ahr Valley laughter” still occupies Laschet
7/13/2022 4:34 p.m
Iconic images remain of every major event – including catastrophes. The memory of the then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Laschet is remembered from the flood in 2021: the candidate for chancellor laughs while others remain serious. Almost a year after the recording, Laschet talks about it in the RTL / ntv interview.
Even a year after his laughter during a visit to the Ahr Valley, the former Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia regrets the situation. “I was moved from the very first minute by the echo that triggered,” said Laschet in the RTL / ntv interview with Ulrich Klose. He broke off his vacation at the time, was out and about day and night and “sat together with many people who were affected, and wept too.” All the more regrettable “that such a laughing situation then arises within a few seconds.”
The scene took place during a speech by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Cameras recorded CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet laughing in the background – and that in the middle of the flood area in North Rhine-Westphalia, where thousands lost their belongings. “This picture”, explains Laschet Klose, “was for a few seconds something I regret to this day, which I’m sorry about, but which I can no longer get rid of.” Laschet does not want to say why he laughed back then. “It was just a completely superfluous comment,” said the CDU politician. In an interview, however, he confirms: “In any case, I’m a different person than the laughing picture suggested.”
The CDU chancellor candidate at the time also believes that the laugh had an impact on the federal election, even if it was not the only decisive factor. “Only the people who saw it back then didn’t see the person I am,” says Laschet. He is a very empathetic person who takes sympathy. He doesn’t know if that will ever let go of him. Even if he meets many people today who know “that their prime minister was someone else,” it’s a very annoying image that will keep popping up.