German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 19/238,
pp. 31026-31027.
Right honorable Frau President. Frau Chancellor. Right
honorable ladies and gentlemen.
The last weeks and months of the government of Chancellor Angela
Merkel sink into a succession of crises which have been characterized by false
decisions, inactivity and government failure.
The July flood catastrophe in Rheinland-Pfalz and
Nordrhein-Westfalen has again receded into the background of the headlines. Yet
people on the Rhine and in Ahrtal still stand before the rubble of their homes
and livelihood; in many locales lacking the required support, infrastructure
not to be foregone still lies in ruins. And more than 180 people have died in the
flooding and its consequences – victims of weather events with torrential
downpours which as ever again for centuries visit the affected regions; yet
also – and this needs be frankly clarified – victims of insufficient
catastrophe defenses and failures of the state, of omitted precautions and
delayed warnings.
The attempt to instrumentalize the suffering of the people
in the flooded areas for the enforcement of climate protection dirigisme is an especially shabby
diversion from one’s own ignorance and incompetence.
We today discuss and decide on the financial facet of the
reconstruction. Six weeks after the destructive flooding, this is more than
overdue. We would have long since been able to speak on this had the other
delegations in this house similarly joined in the demand of the AfD delegation
requesting a special session, instead of once again engaging in petty, little
partisan games of exclusion over the responsibility for the citizens’ well-being. Yet at
that point in time – and this also needs be clearly said – Armin Laschet, the
CDU’s candidate for Chancellor – still stood giggling in the catastrophe zone.
Perhaps for that reason, he too did not want the special session.
The omissions and neglect, the cases of state and authority
failure, and the structural deficiency which this flood catastrophe has brought
to light are not allowed to be swept under the table. To expend money, and to
pat oneself on the back for that, is easy. The citizens however by right expect
answers which up to today they have not obtained.
Just as did the German Weather Service, so also the European
flood alarm system had warned for days of the catastrophe. Why were not passed
along in time the warnings by which people could bring themselves and their
property to safety? The debacle a year ago of the national warning day
obviously lead to no consequences. Sirens which remain silent or are simply not
there, alarm systems which do not function: This is a scandal which
emblematically describes the state of this country under your leadership.
And why do we need the world’s most expensive public
broadcasting if in the hour of catastrophe it not once completes the alarm
signals? Automated SMS warnings are now in the draft law. In other countries,
they are long since standard. Why not with us? You had thought of Corona quarantine
warnings for boundary crossing, for catastrophe defense not.
Thus occur equipment and organization deficits and a
personnel shortage in the civil and catastrophe defense. Those affected by the
flooding were for days left in the lurch. Catastrophe defense on the level of a
developing country is unworthy of an industrial country of Germany’s rank.
It’s true: Catastrophe defense is essentially a duty of the
States, in Rheinland-Pfalz moreover for ten years in the hands of a Green
minister. The failures of state and authorities in the flood catastrophe
however expose a fundamental problem at all political levels. In Germany, the
state is strong in regards dangling and patronizing the citizens, in regards
collecting and distributing tax money; but it is weak when it is about the
fulfillment of its core competences – in taking responsibility for order, law,
domestic and foreign security – and in regards the repulse of tangible dangers.
Who wants to save the world climate in 50 years and tutor
other countries on withdrawal from coal and nuclear, yet who in his own country
does not once manage to sound the warning sirens, he makes himself ridiculous.
And who wants to make the citizens believe that tax increases and industry
shut-downs for the climate could in the future prevent heavy rains and regional
extreme weather, he intentionally plays false.
We therefore need to bring back politics to the ground of
reality. Instead of blessing the entire world, we first need for once to again
bring Germany into order and concentrate ourselves on the tangible duties and
real dangers. In the matter of flood and catastrophe defense, that for example means:
To better fund waste water systems and canalizations for heavy rains, adapt
building plans, create retention basins and overflow acreage, toughen and build
up protective construction and infrastructure, and modernize, continually
examine and keep functional the alarm systems. That naturally is more
troublesome and less spectacular than making big speeches on climate defense
and the saving of the planet, yet it is this for which politicians are elected
and paid by the citizens: With all power to serve the welfare of the country
and its people [mit aller Kraft dem Wohl
des Landes und seiner Bevölkerung dienen].
[trans: tem]
