- The German family minister and Green Party politician Anne Spiegel is resigning.
- On Sunday evening she had asked for an apology for her behavior as state minister during the 2021 flood disaster.
- In a public statement, Spiegel gave family reasons as the reason for her ten-day vacation at the time.
“I’m doing this to avert damage from the office, which is facing major political challenges,” said Spiegel on Monday. “It was a mistake that we went on vacation for so long and that we went on vacation. I apologize for this mistake, »she had explained to the media less than 24 hours earlier. The Green politician has been criticized for weeks for her crisis management in Rhineland-Palatinate after the flood.
In her previous position, Spiegel was also responsible for disaster warnings. She had to answer to a committee of inquiry in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament.
Surprising honest and personal
In her personal statement, the Minister for Family Affairs pointed out that her family with four children and her husband were under a lot of strain due to the corona pandemic – her husband also suffered a stroke in 2019 and had to take it easy afterwards. In 2021, as Minister for Family Affairs in Rhineland-Palatinate, she had taken on too much of herself as a top candidate for the state elections and acting as a commissioner for the Ministry of the Environment.
The 41-year-old emphasized that she took care of restoring the drinking water and electricity supply as well as the sewage treatment plants immediately after the flood. She was also in contact with her ministry while on vacation. However, unlike what she stated, she did not join a cabinet meeting: “I did not take part in a cabinet meeting while on vacation,” said the Green politician. But she interrupted her vacation for a day to go to the Ahr Valley and then flew back to her family.