Laschet estimates that reconstruction could cost up to 30 billion euros

According to initial estimates, the damage caused by the storm in mid-July amounts to more than 13 billion euros in North Rhine-Westphalia alone.

This was announced by Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) on Monday in a special session of the Düsseldorf state parliament.

The damage in Rhineland-Palatinate was at least as high, so that the planned national reconstruction fund would have to include 20 to 30 billion euros, said Laschet.

Before the conference of the Prime Ministers with the Federal Chancellor this Tuesday, all countries had signaled their willingness to raise this amount.

"That is why we are grateful for this nationwide solidarity," said Laschet.

Now a speedy parliamentary procedure with special sessions of the Bundestag and Bundesrat is necessary, affirmed Laschet, who is also CDU chairman and candidate for chancellor of the Union.

"I think that the Bundestag can still meet in August."

In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, more than 150 schools were damaged, at least eight of them so severely that, without an alternative solution, even restricted school operations would not be possible, reported Laschet.

In addition, more than 200 daycare centers and doctor's offices were damaged, and more than 50 pharmacies.

"The flood of July 14th and 15th was probably the biggest natural disaster that North Rhine-Westphalia has hit since the Federal Republic of Germany came into existence," said the Prime Minister.

"After everything I've seen in the past few weeks, I'm still deeply shaken."

CDU in Rhineland-Palatinate wants investigation

Meanwhile, the CDU parliamentary group is requesting a committee of inquiry into the disaster. A few days after the flood disaster in mid-July, the CDU parliamentary group leader Christian Baldauf had described the AfD's call for an investigative committee in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament as "ludicrous". Well, at a press conference on Monday morning, he said, "It was not time to make political capital out of it." The rescue work had not yet been completed and the areas along the Ahr had not yet been cleared of mud. "That was the wrong time."

In the meantime, however, the crisis is beginning to be dealt with, and “large gaps” will open up in the process. Baldauf therefore announced that he would apply for a committee of inquiry after the state parliament's summer break. "In essence, it is about clarifying the question of political responsibility for the disaster," said deputy parliamentary group leader Gordon Schnieder, whom the CDU intends to appoint as its chairman in the committee.

Last Friday, the Koblenz public prosecutor opened an investigation against the district administrator of the Ahrkreis, Jürgen Pföhler (CDU), in connection with the flood disaster. It is about the initial suspicion of negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm through neglect. Pföhler is accused of having declared the disaster too late, as the politically responsible person, although relatively precise warnings had already been issued at an earlier point in time. When asked whether, in view of the investigation against a CDU politician, it was an attempt to hold others accountable too, Baldauf said: “It's not about us wanting to protect anyone. One is criminal responsibility, the other is political responsibility.“The decision for the investigative committee had already been made within the CDU on the day before the public prosecutor's office announced the investigation.

More than 140 people were killed in the flood

The wording of the request for the committee of inquiry is not yet available.

Baldauf and Schnieder announced, however, that they wanted to set the time frame well beyond July 14th and 15th, those days on which the Ahr reached its highest point and more than 140 people were killed.

It was said that the events should be viewed from July 10th, when the first warnings from the European flood warning system EFAS were received.

The CDU politicians have not yet named the end of the investigation.

In addition to the questions of when and how exactly the warning was issued, it must also be about the coordination of helpers and aid funds as well as the efforts for reconstruction. Schnieder also wants to focus on fundamental questions, such as whether the flood protection should have been better organized. All of this must be clarified in detail through testimony before the previously announced study commission can be convened together with the SPD government faction. There are already talks with the SPD parliamentary group leader Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler, said Baldauf.

Upon request, the SPD parliamentary group said that the CDU would change its course after the disaster and leave the common path to political reappraisal. "The CDU parliamentary group will be measured by the fact that it will live up to its responsibility and its own claims, with which it justifies the motives for its current decision in favor of a committee of inquiry, in the coming months," the statement said. The SPD parliamentary group is still adhering to a study commission. This should bundle the processing of the events and the resulting knowledge with the involvement of science.

The CDU intends to apply for the establishment of a committee of inquiry at the next session of the state parliament, which is scheduled for the end of September. According to the state law, a fifth of the votes in the state parliament is necessary for this, which the CDU easily fulfills with its 31 seats. The work of the committee could "if everything goes quickly", so Baldauf, start in October. However, it is not about speed, but about thoroughness.