Dhe Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD) has announced his resignation. He had previously been sharply criticized for weeks for his actions during the Ahr Valley disaster. “Today I take political responsibility for mistakes made in my area of responsibility,” said Lewentz on Wednesday in Mainz.
Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) said that it was very difficult for her personally to comply with Lewentz’s request to resign. She worked “very closely and very trustingly” with him. In politics, there are “rarely people who can be trusted as extensively” as Lewentz. According to Dreyer, he “put his life in the service of the country”.
Dreyer intends to announce Lewentz’ successor for the office of Minister of the Interior “in the next few days”. For the time being, Lewentz will remain in office as managing director. He is also SPD party leader in Rhineland-Palatinate. When asked whether he would keep this post, Lewentz said he was now taking a break until November and would discuss how to proceed with the party chairmanship. He was elected until the party congress in 2023. It is expected that Lewentz will also give up this office.
On Monday, the prime minister distanced himself from Lewentz for the first time and let it be known that she “expected the open questions to be clarified by the interior minister”. And that she had “no own knowledge of this process”. Lewentz had been sharply criticized for his behavior during the flood disaster for weeks. His line of defense, that he had no complete picture of the situation on the night of July 15, 2021, and only had “selective” information, had evidently become untenable after helicopter videos and a police report became public that paint a clear picture of the widespread destruction in the area show night.
The mission report reached Lewentz’s Ministry of the Interior at the time, and the impressions of the helicopter pilots were described to the minister. His ministry had asked for reconnaissance of the helicopters. In addition, Lewentz was informed by 11 p.m. that night of the flooding that houses had collapsed in the village of Schuld. Nevertheless, he did not sound the alarm, did not inform the prime minister at night and did not convene a state government crisis team.
“irritating and unacceptable”
In addition, there was recently the accusation of a cover-up against the Ministry of the Interior, after all, contrary to the specifications, helicopter videos and operational reports had only recently been sent to the committee of inquiry. The chairman of the committee of inquiry and parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group, Martin Haller, recently said that the failure to submit relevant documents and videos was “irritating and unacceptable”.
In the Ahr Valley disaster in mid-July, 134 people died and more than 700 were injured. Many people were surprised by the masses of water while they were sleeping, although the state and district authorities had received precise forecasts of the horrendous water levels. Lewentz was on site in the Ahrweiler district operations center in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler that evening, but claims he didn’t notice anything about the disaster there.
The Greens politician Anne Spiegel only resigned as Federal Minister for Family Affairs in April. She was Environment Minister in Rhineland-Palatinate at the time of the flood disaster and left for France about ten days later on a four-week family vacation. She faced harsh criticism after text messages emerged revealing concerns about her public image shortly after the flood. Moreover, Spiegel later lied about her attending cabinet meetings while on vacation.