Civil Protection Act (Amendment)

The SPD parliamentary group's amendment proposes several adjustments to the state government's draft law on disaster protection. The core point of the application is the establishment of a separate state office for fire and disaster control. As the central, upper state authority, this should be responsible for the entire state and carry out technical supervision of the regional councils. In doing so, the SPD is reacting, among other things, to experiences from the flood disaster in 2021, which made it clear that municipalities in extreme situations need support and clear leadership from the state. Another point concerns strengthening the rights of helpers. In the future, their rights should also explicitly apply if they are called upon by a disaster control authority for an operation, an exercise or another official appointment without an exceptional operational situation or catastrophe having been formally identified. In addition, a disaster protection officer should be appointed at every disaster protection authority, especially at the level of the districts and independent cities, in order to bundle the tasks on site and better coordinate them. The amendment was rejected with 116 votes against. 18 MPs voted yes, there were no abstentions.