German minister faces heat over vacation after deadly floods

A German Cabinet minister has apologized for taking a long vacation shortly after devastating floods last year in the state where she was then a senior official, but it isn’t clear whether the move will help relieve pressure on her

A German Cabinet minister has apologized for taking a long vacation shortly after devastating floods last year in the state where she was then a senior official, but it isn't clear whether the move will help relieve pressure on her.

Anne Spiegel became the minister for families and women in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Cabinet in December. Before that, she was the environment minister and deputy governor of Rhineland-Palatinate state — the region worst hit by floods in July that killed more than 180 people in Germany.

Regional officials have faced questions over their handling of the floods. On Sunday, the state government confirmed a report by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that, 10 days after the floods, Spiegel went on a four-week family vacation in France — though it stressed that she had been reachable throughout. The national opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, called on Scholz to dismiss Spiegel.

On Sunday evening, Spiegel delivered an emotional apology. “It was a mistake that we went on vacation for so long, and that we went on vacation, and I apologize for this mistake," she said. She added that her children hadn't dealt well with the coronavirus pandemic, that her husband needed to avoid stress after suffering a stroke, and that her family had needed a vacation.

Spiegel is a member of the environmentalist Greens, the second-biggest party in Scholz's governing coalition.

Last week, the environment minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, the other German state that was badly hit by the floods, resigned after it emerged that she only briefly interrupted a vacation on the Spanish island of Mallorca when the disaster hit. The departed minister, Ursula Heinen-Esser, is a member of Merz's center-right party.