Investigation Committee Ahr Flood - Investigation committee Ahr flood approves final report
The Landtag investigative committee on the Ahr Valley flood disaster about three years ago considers its mission completed and has passed the Final Report. The roughly 2,100-page document should be accessible in electronic format via the Open Parliamentary Information System of the Landtag (Opal) for all interested parties on August 2, announced the committee chairman Martin Haller (SPD) after a non-public meeting in Mainz. In the Landtag plenary session after the summer break on September 18/19, the report will be discussed. Until then, the deputies are supposed to be able to read it thoroughly.
The final paper covers mainly the investigative mandate, its course and procedure, the evidence collection, and the evaluation and results of the investigation. "The largest part was created in consensus," said Haller. The report contains, however, a joint statement of the traffic light coalition factions as well as three minority reports from the opposition CDU, Free Voters, and AfD factions. Representatives of these three factions again demanded the resignation of Environmental State Secretary Erwin Manz (Greens) and the President of the Supervisory and Service Directorate (ADD), Thomas Linnertz.
During the Ahr Valley flood disaster on the night of July 14-15, 2021, at least 135 people lost their lives. In connection with the processing of the events in the Investigative Committee, the former Environment Minister and later Family Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) as well as Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD) had to resign for different reasons.
The investigative committee began its work on October 1, 2021, at the initiative of the CDU. It held a total of 47 sessions or 294 hours. Of these, approximately 40 hours were non-public. 226 witnesses were heard, some of whom were heard multiple times. In addition, there were 23 experts, some of whom were heard three times each. Electronically, more than one million files with a total size of around 560 gigabytes were available to the investigative committee. Over 7,000 protocol pages were created.
- The Final Report of the Landtag investigative committee on the Ahr Valley flood disaster will be available for all interested parties in Mainz, specifically through the Open Parliamentary Information System (Opal) on August 2.
- Martin Haller, the committee chairman from the SPD, announced this after a non-public meeting in Mainz, highlighting that the committee considers its mission completed in relation to the Mainz flood disaster investigation.
- The CDU, along with Free Voters and AfD factions, have presented minority reports in the final report, culminating in calls for the resignation of Environmental State Secretary Erwin Manz (Greens) and the President of the Supervisory and Service Directorate (ADD), Thomas Linnertz.
- The committee's inquiry into the Ahrtal flood disaster, which involved at least 135 fatalities, had significant implications, leading to the resignations of former Environment Minister Anne Spiegel (Greens) and Interior Minister Roger Lewentz (SPD) for different reasons.
- The Investigation Committee, initiated by the CDU, held 47 sessions in total, interviewing over 226 witnesses and 23 experts, a testament to the extensive efforts made to investigate the disaster protection measures in Rhineland-Palatinate.
