Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Roger Lewentz resigns. That makes sense, but it is far from enough. Malu Dreyer must now bring everything on the table to fully clarify the political failure in the Ahr Valley disaster.
So he’s going after all. After his Green counterpart Anne Spiegel, the Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Roger Lewentz is now resigning. The failure in crisis management during the flood disaster of July 14/15, 2021 finally forced the state party leader to resign.
For a long time, Lewentz and his Prime Minister Malu Dreyer had holed themselves up behind the defensive line, saying that there was no reliable picture of the situation on the night of the flood. This version was gradually crumbled by new evidence that suddenly surfaced in the parliamentary flood investigation committee in Mainz in recent weeks.
Lewentz eloquently tried to talk his way out of his second appearance as a witness. Slowly, however, it became clear that the top civil protection officer in the country had not intervened when the floods rushed down the Ahr during the night and a good 130 people had to die. In this respect, his departure is only logical.
Now it is up to Prime Minister Dreyer to apologize to the people in the Ahr Valley for not acting during the worst crisis in the country. All documents must now be on the table in the committee of inquiry. The process of piecemeal disclosures should end.
Finally, there are still a few unanswered questions:
And last but not least, the Prime Minister should also bring herself to fire the Greens’ Secretary of State for the Environment, Erwin Manz. After all, it was the State Office for the Environment that, according to experts, made some incorrect flood forecasts. In this way, local rescue workers were misled into believing that the flood currents could be brought under control.
To this day, however, Manz rejects all accusations of blame. Tenor: Everything was done right at the time.
In short: courageous political action is required here – beyond partisan tactics or balanced arithmetic between the coalition partners. Dreyer must act. This is the only way for the state mother to regain some confidence in her state government.
