In 2021, Spiegel served as Deputy Minister-President and Minister for Climate Protection, Environment, Mobility, Energy and Forests in the state government of Rhineland-Palatinate. Previously, she was Minister for Family, Women, Youth, Integration and Consumer Protection in the second cabinet of Minister-PresidentMalu Dreyer from 2016 to 2021.[2][3] She was a prominent youth leader in Germany during the 2000s.
Spiegel has Italian ancestry; among others, her maternal grandmother is from Sicily.[3] Spiegel grew up in Speyer and Ludwigshafen, and attended the Albert Schweitzer elementary school, passing her Abitur in 2000 at the Heinrich-Böll-Gymnasium. She then studied politics, philosophy and psychology in Darmstadt, Mainz, Mannheim, and Salamanca until 2007. In spring 2007, she graduated as Master of Arts from the University of Mainz with a major in political science and minors in philosophy and psychology.[2]
Spiegel then worked as a language teacher at Berlitz in Mainz, Mannheim, and Heidelberg from 2008 to 2010.
Spiegel lives in Speyer with her husband, who is Scottish, and four children.
Political career
Early beginnings
Spiegel was a member of the board of the Green Youth of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1999 to 2002, including two years as board spokeswoman. She then served on the federal board of the Green Youth until 2004.[2]
In the 2006 Rhineland-Palatinate state election, Spiegel was the Greens candidate in the constituency of Ludwigshafen am Rhein II, and No. 7 on the party list. The party fell short of the 5% electoral threshold and failed to win any seats.
In the 2011 state election, Spiegel was the Greens candidate in the constituency of Speyer. She won 17.1% of votes, placing third behind the CDU and SPD candidates. She was third on the party list and was comfortably elected as one of the 18 Greens deputies, becoming deputy leader of the party's parliamentary group in the new Landtag.[5] She served as spokesperson for women, integration, migration, and refugee policy. From 2014 to 2016, Spiegel also served on the Speyer city council.[2]
In the 2016 state election, Spiegel was again the Greens' candidate in Speyer, this time winning 10.4% of votes. She was again elected third on the party list. After the Greens entered a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party and Free Democratic Party, Spiegel became Minister for Family, Women, Youth, Integration and Consumer Protection in the second Dreyer cabinet.[2] She resigned from the Landtag to join the cabinet and was succeeded by Pia Schellhammer.[6]
As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, Spiegel is a member of the Committee on Agricultural Policy and Consumer Protection, the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, the Committee on Economic Affairs, and the Committee on Transport. She is also a member of the German–French Friendship Group set up by the German Bundesrat and the French Senate.
Spiegel became the first minister in Rhineland-Palatinate to take maternity leave, which she did in April 2018 to give birth to her fourth child.[10] Spiegel brought the baby to a meeting of the Federal Council in October 2018.[11]
In November 2018, Spiegel represented the German federal government at the Women MPs Conference on the subject of "100 years of women's suffrage" in London. There she also met then-Prime Minister of the United KingdomTheresa May. At the meeting, Spiegel urged her to prevent Brexit.[12]
In the 2021 state elections, Spiegel was nominated as lead candidate for the Greens.[13] The party won 9.3% of votes in the election, becoming the third-largest in the Landtag. The coalition government between the SPD, Greens, and FDP was subsequently renewed, and Spiegel became Deputy Minister-President and Minister for Climate Protection, Environment, Mobility, Energy and Forests.
On 25 November 2021, she was nominated by the federal board of the Greens as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the Scholz cabinet.[15] She took office on 8 December.
During the flood in Rhineland-Palatinate in 2021, Spiegel was state environment minister. She was on vacation in France during the disaster. Spiegel had (falsely) stated that she had attended a cabinet meeting in Rhineland-Palatinate during her vacation. Up from March 2022, Spiegel was heavily criticized because internal documents revealed that she was more concerned with making her ministry look good than with assuming responsibility for the disaster.[17][18]
Spiegel resigned from her post on 11 April 2022. She stated: "Due to political pressure, I decided today to make the office of Federal Minister for Family Affairs available. I am doing this to avert damage to the office, which is facing major political challenges." She made no reference to her alleged mistakes in the statement.[18]
German Foundation for Active Citizenship and Volunteering (DSEE), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Trustees (2021–2022)[20]
Total E-Quality initiative, Member of the Board of Trustees (2021–2022)[21]
Political positions
Within the Green Party, Spiegel is considered to be part of its left wing.[22]
Criticism
After a 15-year-old girl was stabbed to death by her Afghan-born ex-boyfriend in Kandel in 2017, Spiegel – in her capacity as state minister in charge of integration – faced such massive hostility and threats that she was given personal protection.[23]
Flood disaster in the Ahr valley
In March 2022, text messages that Spiegel exchanged with her press spokesman while she was Rhineland-Palatinate's environment minister and that were available to the 18/1 investigative committee of the state parliament on the flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate became public. According to reports in the FAZ and other media, these text messages suggest that the state government did not react to the flood in time and that Spiegel, the environment minister at the time, was primarily concerned about her image.[24][25]
^Staib, Julian (8 March 2022). "Ahrtal-Katastrophe: Das Umweltministerium hätte vor der Flut warnen können". faz.net (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved 10 March 2022. Bereits um 18 Uhr am Katastrophentag wusste das Ministerium in Mainz, dass es an der Ahr ein Extremereignis gab. Am Folgetag war die Umweltministerin – und heutige Bundesfamilienministern – Anne Spiegel vor allem besorgt, ihr könnte Verantwortung angelastet werden.
^Blanke, Philipp (9 March 2022). "Kritik an Bundesministerin wegen Chatprotokollen aus der Flutnacht". zeit.de (in German). ZEIT Online. Retrieved 10 March 2022. Am Morgen nach der Ahr-Flutkatastrophe waren Anne Spiegel und ihr Team offenbar eher um das eigene Image besorgt. Das legen veröffentlichte Chatverläufe nahe.
External links
Media related to Anne Spiegel at Wikimedia Commons
