Rüdiger Lucassen, September 7, 2021, Flood in Nordrhein-Westfalen

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/239, p. 31151.

Frau President. Ladies and gentlemen.

The flood in western Germany is, without a doubt, a once in a century catastrophe. I myself have never before seen with my own eyes damages on this scale. My dwelling is in the old town of Bad Münstereifel, directly on the Erft. The house has remained standing; it is however in danger of collapse. On the Saturday after the flood, my wife and I could save our household goods. Whether and when we again are able to return to our home, we do not know.

Yet one thing I know for sure: When one’s own life is affected, things appear more clearly than from the window of a state limousine. I share our loss with thousands of countrymen in the region.Yet many have lost far more than I. More than 180 people died in the flooding, 180 people who sat in their living room, or wanted to haul stuff out of the cellar, or drive the auto out of the underground garage, or even on the way home were carried away in the street; 180 people who are now dead and who, despite the fact that they are dead, have a claim, a claim to an answer to the question of the responsibility for their death.

In Nordrhein-Westfalen, the flood has disclosed a failure of the state. The Federal and State governments’ catastrophe and population defense has failed on a gigantic scale. Alarms of the European Flood Warning System were ignored, sirens were not activated, the threatened villages and towns were evacuated much too late. That cost human lives.

The failures of the state are one thing; another is meantime the occult reflex of the politics to shove these failures onto climate change. Yes, the climate changes – as always. Yes, man must better deal with Nature – fully right. But for the flood defense, for retention basins, for reforestation, for digital warning systems, the Federal and State governments are responsible, not the climate.

The protection of the population is the core duty of the state and thereby the primary obligation of the Minister-president. Herr Laschet ought to have warned and evacuated the people. That, he did not do. Herr Laschet ought to have provided an infrastructure for the protection of villages and towns. That, he did not do. Herr Laschet has left in the lurch the people in Nordrhein-Westfalen. He has not protected the population.

Ladies and gentlemen, in all these failures of policy is also to be seen a ray of light, and that is the people of our country. What I have seen in the days following the flood in my home of the readiness to help and the will to endure shows to me that our country has a future. I thank all countrymen who have performed magnificently in the last months in my home region. You will see: We will rebuild this country.

Thank you.

 

[trans: tem]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bernd Baumann, September 7, 2021, Afghanistan Investigation

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/239, pp. 31104-31105.

Her President. Ladies and gentlemen.

The mission in Afghanistan is the greatest military and foreign policy failure in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. 59 German soldiers are dead; countless billions senselessly squandered. It is a disaster! Never has a Federal minister in so important, in so great a matter so fundamentally failed – very much laying aside your prognoses, expectations, evaluations. All is now clear. Neither the CDU Defense Minister, and certainly not the SPD Foreign Minister, knew at all what they were doing, ladies and gentlemen. The debate must be in the daily order! We are governed by dilettantes and blindmen! We need to speak on that today in parliament.

There is also a reason why the matter needs be dealt with here in parliament, one still much more important: The failure in Afghanistan is a historic wake-up call, a profound caesura for the West. For 20 years, almost an entire generation, it was sought to implant Western values, Western forms of society and state in a most deeply oriental-Moslem country. That has failed with a crash. You have attained nothing; no one has taken charge. We need to speak on the reasons, and to be sure in full, ladies and gentlemen!

And the members of the Bundeswehr, the veterans and those left behind demand answers and, honestly, we here in parliament owe them an answer because it is a parliamentary army. A head of government does not determine its mission, a minister or a president, but the parliament itself; thus us.

The search for answers however requires valid data, supporting material and evidence; all documents, all mail, all data on the Afghanistan mission. Precisely that demands a motion which needs to be debated here today; but this debate the government coalition wants to prevent. We of the AfD want that this debate be set up. Put on this point of debate! It is one of the most important of the last weeks and months, ladies and gentlemen.

The reasons for the failures must be comprehensively elaborated, here in plenary session and in the committees. We of the AfD demand an investigating committee “Afghanistan”. It is now required and for this all supporting material needs to be secured. We today must decide on this; otherwise, it goes as in the investigating committee on the von der Leyen consultants affair. There, cell phone data was suddenly deleted, protocols mutilated, and important officials simply could not remember. That is not allowed to repeat, ladies and gentlemen.

And 2015 is not allowed to repeat. As we have just heard from the new agencies, people evacuated by the U.S. Army to Germany, to Ramstein, have submitted asylum applications and are leaving the U.S. defense area. That contradicts everything that the Federal government promised to the voters on how they want to manage this. And this is again a failure with which we need to deal in advance and in advance prevent.

 

[trans: tem]

 

Albrecht Glaser, September 10, 2021, Olaf Scholz and Finance Ministry

AfD Kompakt, September 10, 2021.

All that we at this time are hearing of the inquiries sounds exactly like the beginning of the Wirecard affair. The Finance Minister said the authorities installed by the Finance Minister at the BaFin [Federal Financial Supervisory Authority] had committed no mistakes and that his house had nothing to do with it. It soon turned out that the communication between the BaFin and the FM [Finance Ministry] was very close and that an adequate supervision did not occur.

It now again so appears in the case of the FIU, the special unit for the prevention of money laundering at customs. The removal of the competence from the BKA [Federal Criminal Office] to customs was criticized by many professional people, the pertinent trade union and by co-workers. And the Bundestag’s Finance Committee had concerned itself with the structural change. The FIU’s reports of suspicious activity have been reduced to a fraction without that disturbing the supervising Finance Ministry. As the Finance Minister explained at the time, co-workers in his house were not directly concerned with the inquiries. It meanwhile appears to be clear that there was and is routine communication between the Ministry and the FIU, which again urges the suspicion that also in this case the Ministry’s supervision of the FIU and the Finance Minister’s supervision over his house are not functioning.

Scholz in his time had defended the Warburg Bank in Hamburg from the grasp of the tax administration, which the BaFin had covered until the recall of its president, and now wants nothing to do with the FIU’s failures. Yet plainly not every politician can do all that he believes himself capable of.

 

[trans: tem]