Berlin Actually, the Greens in Husum should be dealing with other topics today. The agenda of the federal executive board’s retreat includes the war in Ukraine, Germany’s energy sovereignty and civil protection. After the weekend, however, one person comes to the fore – the future of Federal Minister for Family Affairs Anne Spiegel.
She has been criticized for weeks for crisis management. It was then announced over the weekend that she had gone on vacation with her family for a month ten days after the devastating flood.
“I apologize for this mistake,” she said, citing family reasons. “It was too much.” In January 2021, Spiegel had taken over the management of the Ministry of the Environment after the resignation of her party colleague Ulrike Höfken in addition to the Ministry of Family, Integration and Consumer Protection. After winning the state elections in March, the top candidate of the Greens took over the newly tailored Ministry of Climate Protection in Mainz.
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Until she moved to Berlin, Spiegel was also Deputy Prime Minister in Malu Dreyer’s (SPD) traffic light government.
Face-saving resignation option not used
On Sunday, Spiegel admitted that – contrary to what she had previously stated – she did not join the cabinet meetings during her vacation and immediately after the Ahr disaster. “I didn’t take part in a cabinet meeting while on vacation,” said the Green politician. But she interrupted her vacation for a day to go to the Ahr Valley and then flew back to her family.
Spiegel seemed emotional throughout the entire performance, repeatedly faltered during her statement and finally sought help from one of her employees in the background.
However, Spiegel did not announce a resignation – although apparently even their party leadership unanimously urged this after a crisis meeting on Sunday, as reported by “Bild”. The Greens did not initially comment on the report.
A Green politician told the Handelsblatt: “With all personal understanding: One wonders how she wants to play a strong role as a minister in the future.” He added: “This is a question that concerns many of us.”
Spiegel interrupted her vacation for a day to go to the Ahr Valley and then flew back to her family.
(Photo: dpa)
The appearance on Sunday should have been an “escape to the front”, but it will hardly work, he said and suggested that Spiegel resign. “The big picture is problematic.”
With a view to the upcoming state elections in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia in May, it said: “It won’t help us if this remains an ongoing issue.”
For the party, the personnel is extremely unfortunate, especially since the Greens are currently having to bend the content anyway. Even during the election campaign, the party opposed arms deliveries and the rearmament of the Bundeswehr. However, due to the Ukraine war and the turning point in foreign, security and defense policy, top personnel can no longer stick to these slogans.
The Mannheim political scientist Constantin Wurthmann told the Handelsblatt: “Anne Spiegel could have used yesterday evening to resign face-saving, but she failed to do so.”
He also said: “It won’t just go past her.” If necessary, she should put her own ambition on hold, also with a view to Spiegel’s green cabinet colleagues Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck. “It almost seems as if they have been the federal government for a long time, they work so routinely and professionally. This is by no means ordinary.”
The press conference showed two things, said Wurthmann from GESIS – Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences: “As a politician, Ms. Spiegel is ultimately just a person who has a life outside of politics – but she made the big mistake, at some point she lost the point to see that it would make sense to shift down a gear politically.”
Demands for resignation are increasing
The fact that she is only now commenting on the allegations directed against her, also in a press conference at which she is portrayed as extremely unhappy by her ministry’s press department, “is part of an accumulation of mistakes that must not happen”.
There had already been calls for Spiegel to resign over the weekend. CDU leader Friedrich Merz, for example, asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to dismiss Spiegel – even before the statement on Sunday. Several other Union politicians also demanded Spiegel’s resignation – and spoke of double standards.
Even before Spiegel’s statement on Sunday, the CDU leader called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to dismiss Spiegel.
(Photo: IMAGO/Future Image)
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the local CDU politician and Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser resigned from her post on Thursday after it became known that she had met with other government members after the flood disaster in Mallorca to celebrate her husband’s birthday.
The designated FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Saai, on the other hand, was cautious about the minister’s political future. “Others must now evaluate what possible conclusions should be drawn from this,” said Djir-Sarai on Monday morning on “RTL”.
The Greens would have to judge whether she was up to the job. “They will talk about these things, the chancellor has to deal with this question – he will do it too – it’s not something I have to do.”
The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Family Ministry, Sven Lehmann (Greens), defended Spiegel on Twitter. “The example of Anne Spiegel is also used to discuss how humane politics can be,” he wrote.
“Politicians are people. People can make mistakes or, in hard deliberations, make decisions that they later regret. If you don’t want machines in politics, you get people.”
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