Anne Spiegel has no choice but to resign from her post immediately. With her catastrophic defense strategy in the flood disaster affair, the Green politician lost all trust. And, of all things, as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, she has also done feminism in this country a disservice.
Even before the most recent sensitive publications, disturbing details had come to light about how Spiegel, in her former position as state minister in Rhineland-Palatinate, handled the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley.
At that time it became known how much she was concerned about her appearance in the acute crisis – and selected appointments in crisis areas according to the standard of public effectiveness, in which she, above all, comes across well as a minister. With the latest revelations, a red line has finally been crossed.
The worst thing is that Spiegel lied to the public in the face. First, she said she attended all cabinet meetings during her four-week vacation in France immediately after the 2020 flood disaster.
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Later she admitted that it wasn’t like that, she had had it checked again, she couldn’t remember properly beforehand. However, the fact that a minister allegedly cannot remember whether she took part in cabinet meetings during the biggest crisis in her state for decades is not the least bit credible. Spiegel lied, and honestly thought she could get away with it.
Family wasn’t a problem for Anne Spiegel as long as it worked
Not only that shows how overwhelmed the family minister is with the situation. The fact that she somehow wanted to “tie off” her apology statement on Sunday evening, and also said it out loud in passing, also left a devastating impression, and a double one: that she could only be concerned with her own appearance again. And above all: that she is hopelessly overwhelmed with the situation.
Spiegel’s defense attorneys now believe that the minister’s family situation should be understood. A man with a stroke, four children, plus Corona – she not only has political responsibility, but also for her family. Is a holiday after this hard time incomprehensible? And don’t we want politicians who have a life alongside politics and can therefore better understand people’s needs and concerns?
Precisely because of her family background, Spiegel was a “role model” for many other women in Germany, who admired the Green politician for her ability to balance family and ministerial job. Spiegel himself drew on it politically. It boosted her career. And you can’t blame her for that at all.
But the family was never a problem as long as things were going well for Spiegel. Neither was the family situation an obstacle to taking on the top candidate in the state elections, nor to her move to Berlin, which foreseeably brought Spiegel even more responsibility and which would demand more time from her.
Against this background, however, it is not at all possible to make the family an issue in the crisis and to use it as an excuse for one’s own mistakes. Neither can other women in managerial positions, who in this country have to walk the tightrope between family and job every day, and who can actually only interpret Spiegel’s statements as an attack on their self-determined, feminist life model.
More: “The overall picture is problematic”: Greens urge Minister Spiegel to resign