CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Spahn resigns over surrogacy debate
Jens Spahn has resigned as chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group after his fatherhood via a surrogacy arrangement banned in Germany triggered a credibility debate. Chancellor Merz called the resignation unavoidable and is pressing for a swift succession. CSU regional group leader Hoffmann takes over on an interim basis.
Former federal health minister Jens Spahn, who has led the CDU/CSU parliamentary group since 2025, announced his resignation on Saturday in a letter to the group, a step that Chancellor Friedrich Merz had, according to Spiegel, demanded in an earlier phone call. The trigger was the debate over his child, born to a surrogate mother in the US; surrogacy is banned in Germany, and critics accused Spahn of double standards, since he had helped support such bans. The left-leaning taz called the resignation the only correct consequence, while conservative voices such as Cicero accused him of a lack of insight. Spiegel points to earlier affairs, including overpriced Covid mask deals and a villa purchase, and reads the resignation as one scandal too many. The Berliner Zeitung, by contrast, criticises the country for debating morality instead of solutions to demographic change. Internationally, the New York Times, the BBC and the Financial Times took up the case as a charge of hypocrisy against one of Merz's leading figures. For the black-red coalition, the loss of a group leader seen as an anchor of stability comes at an awkward moment, as Merz quickly looks for a successor.