Ex-Federal Minister for Family Affairs Anne Spiegel (Greens) billed around 700 euros in tax money for her trip to the flood-damaged Ahr Valley during her vacation when she was Minister of the Environment in Mainz. This emerges from a response published on Tuesday evening by today’s Rhineland-Palatinate Environment Minister Katrin Eder (Greens) to a request from the CDU in the Mainz state parliament.
Spiegel had interrupted her four-week family vacation to southern France shortly after the Ahr flood with 134 dead to visit the Ahr valley on August 10 last year. You have informed yourself in the disaster area about the situation of the residents, destruction, clean-up work, needed help and a special measuring program for water pollution.
According to Eder, a total of 701.30 euros in tax money was billed for Spiegel’s train and taxi rides from southern France to Germany and back. The responsible department in the Ministry of the Environment in Mainz took care of booking the trip, it said.
Spiegel had stumbled across her four-week vacation this year shortly after the deadly flash flood in mid-July 2021. She justified her vacation by saying that the vacation in France was necessary because of the great burden on her family. In April 2022 she resigned as Federal Minister for Family Affairs. Her successor in Berlin was Lisa Paus (Greens).
