German minister resigns over vacation after deadly flood

By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — A German Cabinet minister has resigned after it emerged that she went on a long vacation shortly after devastating floods which left over 100 people dead last year in the state where she was then a senior official. She cited “political pressure” on Monday as she became the first member of Chancellor OIaf Scholz’s government to step down. Anne Spiegel, the minister for families and women, had delivered an emotional apology on Sunday but that move failed to stem calls for her to go. Spiegel joined Scholz’s Cabinet in December. Before that, she was the environment minister and deputy governor of Rhineland-Palatinate state — the region worst hit by floods in July that killed more than 180 people in Germany.