Jens Spahn, the chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, resigned on 18 July 2026 after Chancellor Friedrich Merz made clear that his position had become untenable. The move followed days of internal party uproar after German media revealed that Spahn and his husband had become parents through surrogacy in the United States. Surrogacy is illegal in Germany, and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) voted at a party congress in February to maintain the ban. Merz, who had initially congratulated Spahn privately, declared the resignation “right and unavoidable,” stating that “credibility is the most valuable asset in politics.”

The CDU’s official stance, reaffirmed at its Stuttgart congress, holds that surrogacy should remain prohibited to prevent exploitation and health risks. Spahn, a former health minister who once enforced the embryo protection law, acknowledged the contradiction. In a letter to colleagues, he wrote that his “personal happiness in starting a family” had become “incompatible with my political office.” He had earlier told Bild newspaper that he had “wrestled with myself for a long time” before deciding to have a child via surrogacy. Opposition figures seized on the case: Luigi Pantisano of the hard-left Die Linke accused Spahn of a “double standard,” arguing that “the law always applies to ordinary people, but for top politicians, they apparently apply only until they have enough money to go circumvent them abroad.” Green party parliamentary leader Franziska Brantner called the resignation “long overdue,” though she described the surrogacy controversy as “merely the final straw.”

The affair has exposed tensions within the conservative camp ahead of three crucial state elections in eastern Germany in September. Regional CDU leaders, including Daniel Peters of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, had publicly demanded Spahn’s departure, calling his actions “completely unacceptable.” According to party sources, the surrogate mother was already four months pregnant at the time of the February congress vote, a timeline that intensified accusations of hypocrisy. Merz, while acknowledging Spahn’s role in returning the CDU to power, insisted there was “no reason” to change German law or the party’s position. The controversy also revived a broader German debate on surrogacy: the practice is banned domestically, but courts have recognised parentage established abroad under certain conditions since 2014.

Spahn, 46, rose to prominence as health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic and later became a leading voice on the CDU’s right wing, advocating a hardline immigration stance. He had previously expressed personal misgivings about surrogacy, telling GQ magazine in 2015 that as a gay Christian he found it “very difficult” to reconcile with the idea. His resignation from the parliamentary group leadership does not affect his seat in the Bundestag. The group’s deputy leader, Alexander Hoffmann, will serve as interim chair. Merz said he would consult with Markus Söder, leader of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party CSU, to propose a successor. The parliamentary group is expected to elect a new chair when it reconvenes after the summer recess, with the first regular meeting scheduled for 8 September.