Jens Spahn, chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, has resigned following controversy over his use of a surrogate mother in the United States, a practice banned in Germany. Party sources confirmed the resignation to AFP on Saturday. In a letter to colleagues obtained by AFP, Spahn wrote that he had realized his personal happiness in starting a family with his husband and becoming a father was incompatible with his political office.
The CDU is firmly opposed to surrogate pregnancies, having voted at a party congress in February to maintain Germany's ban. At that time, the surrogate mother contracted by Spahn was already around four months pregnant, according to Bild. Spahn and his husband have since welcomed the child, with the news breaking in German media earlier this week.
The decision drew immediate criticism from within the CDU, including calls for Spahn to resign and accusations of hypocrisy from other politicians. The regional CDU chairman in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania called Spahn's decision completely unacceptable on Friday.
Spahn had first tried to defend himself in a podcast interview with Bild on Friday, saying he had wrestled with himself for a long time, including over the issue of surrogacy, before deciding to have a child this way. By Saturday, he told colleagues that the balancing act between his private decision to have a child through surrogacy and the expectations placed on him as faction chairman had proven more difficult than anticipated.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz had declined to comment publicly on Spahn's future on Friday, though he personally congratulated him on becoming a parent. Merz also said he saw no reason to change Germany's surrogacy laws or the CDU's opposition to the practice. Following the resignation, Merz called it correct and unavoidable, stating that credibility is the highest virtue in politics.
Merz said he would work with CSU leader Markus Söder to propose a successor for the faction chairmanship, with the process and timeline to be coordinated with party and parliamentary bodies.
Spahn, 46, previously served as health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic under Angela Merkel and has since become a prominent voice on the CDU's right wing, notably pushing for a harder line on immigration.
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