Minister draws criticism for woke tweak to flooding alert

A GERMAN minister is under fire after it emerged that her only suggested tweak to a flood alert after receiving grave forecasts was to introduce gender-neutral language.

Anne Spiegel ignored official predictions of the deadly floods that swept through western Germany last summer, according to government text messages leaked to the press.

She authorised a government statement saying that the situation was under control, and her only intervention was to make it gender neutral.

Ms Spiegel is family minister in Olaf Scholz’s government, but last summer was regional environment minister for Rhineland-palatinate, meaning she was in charge of the state’s defences when the floods swept through it last July.

A total of 196 people were killed across Germany but the worst-affected area, the Ahr Valley where 135 people died, was under Ms Spiegel’s control.

Just before the waters hit, she gave a speech in which she claimed Rhineland-palatinate was a “world leader” in dealing with heavy rainfall.

As she spoke, official forecasters were warning of record water levels. But over an hour later her ministry issued a statement claiming there was “no risk of serious flooding”.

The ministry claims Ms Spiegel’s statement had been prepared in the morning and the timing of its release was unfortunate. But the leaked messages suggest she personally approved it shortly before – and after the warning from government forecasters.

According to the texts, she asked for a change in the wording to make the statement more gender neutral, but approved the rest.

Ms Spiegel also faces allegations civil servants were unable to reach her by phone on the night of the disaster or early the following morning.

She has not commented on the allegations, but was due to testify to a regional parliamentary committee about the disaster yesterday evening.