Ahr Valley: flood videos: Pressure on the interior minister in Mainz is increasing
Ahr Valley
Flood videos: pressure on the interior minister in Mainz is increasing
The still from one of the police videos shows houses in the Ahr Valley that are already surrounded by water. photo
© —/Police Rhineland-Palatinate/dpa
In Rhineland-Palatinate, the CDU and AfD are calling for the interior minister to resign. Police videos from the flood night in the Ahr Valley had previously become known, raising doubts about the authorities’ reaction.
In the discussion about the recently surfaced police helicopter videos from the night of the flood Ahr Valley the call from the opposition in Rhineland-Palatinate for the resignation of Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD) is getting louder. If Lewentz does not resign of his own accord, Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) must fire him, the two parliamentary group leaders of the CDU and AfD in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament, Christian Baldauf and Michael Frisch, demanded on Wednesday.
The Ministry of the Interior showed the videos to journalists in Mainz on Tuesday. People and references to certain houses were previously pixelated in the three videos. The films show footage of the ahr-Orten Mayschoß to Schuld between 10:14 p.m. and 10:43 p.m. on the night of the flood on July 14, 2021. Whole areas are under water on the films. You can also see (pixelated) people on a garage roof and a car that drives through the masses of water with the rear window wipers and interior lights on.
Baldauf explained that anyone who does not see such videos as a call to action is out of place. The chairman of the Free Voters in the state parliament’s investigative committee on the flood disaster, Stephan Wefelscheid, said: “If you had seen these videos, you would have had really blatant indications that central defense measures are required here”. Freshly stressed, regardless of what Lewentz said in the flood night Whether I knew about the videos or not, I am sure that on the evening of July 14, 2021, his police force had a clear picture of the historical flood disaster on the Ahr.
