Flood disaster in the Ahr valley: circles: Mainz Interior Minister Lewentz before resignation
Flood disaster in the Ahr Valley
Circles: Mainz Interior Minister Lewentz before resigning
Roger Lewentz has come under increasing pressure. photo
© Thomas Frey/dpa
After Anne Spiegel, another minister is drawing personal conclusions from dealing with the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley. According to government circles, Roger Lewentz wants to give up his position.
Around 15 months after the flood disaster in Ahr Valley The Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of the Interior, Roger Lewentz, resigned from his post. According to information from government circles, the SPD politician wants to announce this decision on Wednesday in Mainz.
Lewentz was criticized for police videos from the night of the disaster that have only recently become public and the helicopter pilots’ subsequent deployment report to the Ministry of the Interior. According to the police, the video recordings, which were accidentally forgotten, show people in dire need in the flood.
The discussion recently focused on the question of when the minister had enough information on the night of July 14th to 15th, 2021 to be able to recognize the catastrophic event and to react to it. In the flash flood that hit the upper reaches of the evening ahr began and reached the mouth of the Rhine early in the morning, at least 134 people lost their lives.
Lewentz had explained to the committee of inquiry that he had not had a complete picture of the situation on the night of the flood. He only saw the films that have now surfaced in the investigative committee at the end of September. The written report was not discussed at the meeting at the end of September. the police has admitted that it was too late in submitting the films to the prosecutor’s office and the investigative committee. The CDU and AfD in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament had previously called for Lewentz’s resignation.
In April, the Greens politician Anne Spiegel resigned as Federal Minister for Family Affairs. She was at the time of flood disaster Environment Minister in Rhineland-Palatinate and about ten days later left for a four-week family vacation in France. The Green politician justified this by saying that the vacation was necessary because of the great burden on her family.
