Jens Spahn, one of the most powerful figures in the CDU, resigned as parliamentary group leader of the country’s governing conservative coalition on Saturday after revealing that he and his husband had a child through a surrogate mother in the United States. The 46-year-old former health minister said his personal happiness was incompatible with his political office. His departure strips Chancellor Friedrich Merz of a close ally at a difficult moment for the Christian Democrats, who are sliding in the polls ahead of key regional elections this autumn.
News broke on Thursday. Spahn and his husband Daniel Funke had become parents through a surrogate abroad, prompting criticism from politicians across several parties, including his own, and accusations of hypocrisy from the opposition. The practice of surrogacy is banned in Germany, punishable by up to three years imprisonment or a fine, though raising a child born to a surrogate abroad is not prohibited. His own party, the CDU, voted to reaffirm its support for the ban as recently as February.
The criticism was sharp. Spahn had personally backed the ban for years. As health minister in 2020, he rejected calls by the liberal FDP to relax the prohibition. In 2015, he wrote that as a gay man and a Christian he found it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb. Spahn had survived other political scandals, but this proved one too many for his party.
A chancellor responds
Merz called the decision right and unavoidable. “Credibility is the most valuable asset in politics,” he wrote on social media, adding that he would begin the process of appointing a replacement. The chancellor avoided publicly criticising his ally but said he saw no reason to change the party’s stance on surrogacy and that the CDU would discuss the incident. While crediting Spahn with helping the CDU return to power, Merz left no doubt that the resignation was necessary.
Spahn defended himself before German media on Friday, telling the Bild newspaper he had wrestled with himself for a long time, including on the issue of surrogacy. In his resignation letter to party colleagues, he wrote that the balancing act between his private decision to have a child through surrogacy and the understandable expectations placed on him as chairman of the parliamentary group had become greater than he anticipated. He also said the increasing relentlessness in public discourse had given him deep pause for thought. Despite all clarity and decisiveness regarding the issues, he urged his colleagues to always remain human in their tone.
Political stakes
The resignation comes at a perilous time. Merz is struggling in opinion polls. In Saxony-Anhalt, the far-right AfD party could win an outright majority, which would mark the first time a far-right party has held power in a German state since World War Two. Writing for Bavarian public broadcaster BR24, journalist Christian Wölfel remarked that one of the most powerful elected representatives was flouting the very rights denied to childless couples in Germany, confirming precisely the narrative that fringe political groups are using to win votes shortly before the state elections in the east.
Others see Merz’s hand in the outcome. Eva Fischer, a journalist at the newspaper Taz, reported that Spahn had made no secret of his ambitions to become chancellor and was an increasingly dangerous threat to Merz. She wrote that in politics, the rule is that if someone could pose a threat to you, it is best to get rid of them, and that Merz still had the power to do that.
Alexander Hoffmann, head of the Christian Social Union parliamentary group, will take over Spahn’s duties until a successor is chosen. Hoffmann said the decision deserved the utmost respect. As parliamentary leader of the Christian Democrats, Spahn’s job was to make sure Merz’s government had the votes to pass its agenda, a role that carried significant influence in German politics. Filling that vacancy now falls to Merz.
The controversy also highlights a broader European divide. Other EU countries including France, Spain, and Italy also ban surrogacy, which involves a woman carrying a baby and giving birth on behalf of parents unable to have children themselves. France’s top court, the Court of Cassation, ruled this month that babies born to a surrogate mother abroad should be legally recognised as their intended parents’ children. Italy made it illegal in 2024 for Italians to have a baby abroad through surrogacy.