According to information from coalition circles, Mayor of Mainz Michael Ebling (SPD) will be the new interior minister of Rhineland-Palatinate. The 55-year-old is to be sworn in as the successor to the resigned Roger Lewentz in the state parliament in the afternoon, as the German Press Agency learned on Thursday. First, “Die Rheinpfalz” reported on the personnel.
Ebling has been Mayor of Mainz since 2012, having previously been State Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science, Continuing Education and Culture.
Lewentz announced his resignation on Wednesday. He was criticized for police videos from the night of the flood disaster that were only recently made public, and the helicopter pilots’ subsequent deployment report to the Ministry of the Interior. According to the police, the video recordings, which were accidentally forgotten, show people in dire need in the flood. With his resignation, he is taking political responsibility for mistakes made in his area of responsibility, said Lewentz.
The discussion recently focused on the question of when the minister had enough information on the night of July 14th to 15th, 2021 to be able to recognize the catastrophic event and to react to it. At least 134 people lost their lives in the flash flood, which began in the evening on the upper reaches of the Ahr and reached the confluence with the Rhine in the early morning.
