In July 2021, western Germany fell victim to a terrible natural disaster after heavy rain showers caused massive flooding in the areas of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. The flood of the century claimed around 180 lives in Germany alone, and the crisis management of the then Environment Minister Anne Spiegel was heavily criticized.
Nevertheless, she not only remained in office, but was even appointed Federal Minister for Family Affairs in the course of the new traffic light coalition. But now, more than nine months after the disaster, the Green Minister seems to have caught up with her past. The reason was not just the text messages that appeared with her employees, which revealed a lack of crisis management: She spent the night of the accident at a private dinner and ignored warnings. The next day she was less concerned with the victims and the damage caused by the flood than with self-portrayal as a “crisis manager”. She attached particular importance to the fact that everything in the following press releases had to be “gendered” correctly. The investigative committee of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament found out last week that Spiegel had left for a four-week family vacation shortly after the disaster.
On Monday she announced her resignation at short notice.
