The resignation

Jens Spahn stepped down as chair of the CDU/CSU Bundestag group on Saturday, 18 July, after a week of internal party fury. Spahn and his husband Daniel Funke had announced on Wednesday that they had become parents to a son, Georg, born via a surrogate mother in the United States. Surrogacy is banned in Germany, a prohibition Spahn had publicly supported as a CDU politician. The revelation that he had privately circumvented the ban triggered what multiple outlets described as a storm of indignation within the conservative bloc.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who also leads the CDU, initially congratulated Spahn on the birth but then demanded his resignation the following day. The Frankfurter Allgemeine noted that Merz "hätte seine Partei besser kennen müssen" (should have known his party better) and that his swift reversal suggested he too had not been informed in advance. Spahn informed fellow MPs of his decision in a letter on Saturday.

The succession timeline

Merz, in coordination with CSU leader Markus Söder, announced during a CDU executive committee meeting on Monday morning that the parliamentary group would hold a special in-person session to elect a new chair. Interim group leader Alexander Hoffmann and parliamentary secretary Steffen Bilger then sent a message to members confirming the date: Wednesday, 29 July, at 14:00.

Merz and Söder hold the right of nomination for the post. Merz told ZDF's "Sommerinterview" that he wanted the succession settled quickly and had already held discussions with Söder over the weekend. He also raised the possibility of a broader cabinet reshuffle, saying it "could be an opportunity to think again about the government's line-up," while stressing he was speaking in the subjunctive.

The political miscalculation

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, Spahn's downfall was not about the ethics of surrogacy itself. A recent commission had found that a constitutional legalisation of surrogacy would be possible in Germany. The CDU, however, had reaffirmed its opposition at its Stuttgart party conference in February. By that point, the surrogate mother in the US was already pregnant. Spahn did not disclose his private situation to party colleagues, remaining publicly an opponent of the practice while privately pursuing it. The paper called this a "Vertrauensbruch" (breach of trust).

Spahn compounded the error by initially proposing that the parliamentary group decide his fate in September, when the CDU faces critical state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin and is fighting the AfD for its political future. The Frankfurter Allgemeine judged that one could not have wished for a worse moment to burden the party with questions about its figurehead's credibility.

What comes next

With the 29 July vote now fixed, attention turns to potential candidates. No names have yet been formally floated in the sources, but Merz's reference to a possible cabinet reshuffle signals that the succession may trigger wider personnel changes. The special session will be held in person in Berlin, and the decision rests with the 196 members of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.