Jens Spahn resigned on Saturday in a cabinet reshuffle after criticism over using a surrogate mother in the US to have a child. He said his personal happiness of founding a family with his husband and becoming a father was not compatible with his political office.
Spahn, 46, had become one of the most powerful figures in the CDU and was serving as parliamentary group leader of Germany's governing coalition. Friedrich Merz said Spahn's decision was “right” and “inevitable,” and said he would begin the process of appointing Spahn's replacement.
Merz moves on Spahn's replacement
The resignation changes the leadership of Germany's governing coalition immediately. German media reported that Alexander Hoffmann would take over Spahn's duties until a successor was chosen, giving the CDU and the Christian Social Union a temporary arrangement while Merz starts the formal process.
Spahn's resignation statement gave the clearest explanation of the step. He wrote that “The balancing act between my private decision to have a child through surrogacy and the understandable expectations placed on me as Chairman of our parliamentary group has become greater than I anticipated” and added, “Despite all clarity and decisiveness regarding the issues, let us always remain human in our tone.”
CDU and the surrogacy ban
The political problem is sharper because Spahn had previously backed the ban on surrogacy in Germany. The CDU signed a resolution reaffirming that support in February, and Spahn himself wrote in 2015 that “as a gay man and a Christian I find it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb.” In 2020, when he was health minister, he rejected calls by the FDP for the ban to be relaxed.
Germany prohibits surrogacy and makes it punishable with three years imprisonment or a fine. At the same time, raising a child born to a surrogate mother abroad is not banned, which leaves Spahn's family decision legal in one country but politically exposed in another.
Germany's next leadership step
The immediate question inside the CDU is who will inherit Spahn's post permanently. Merz has already opened the process, and until that is finished Hoffmann is handling the duties, leaving the party to manage both the leadership transition and the credibility hit from a position Spahn had once defended himself.
