Jens Spahn, the chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in Germany's Bundestag, resigned from his leadership post on Saturday after a wave of criticism over his use of a surrogate mother in the United States — a practice he had previously opposed and that remains illegal in Germany. In a letter to colleagues, the 46-year-old wrote: "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 proven more difficult than I had anticipated." Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who leads the centre-right CDU, called the resignation "right and inevitable," adding that "credibility is the most valuable asset in politics."

The controversy erupted earlier in the week when Spahn and his husband, Daniel Funke, announced the birth of their child, named Georg, who had been carried by a surrogate in the United States. Surrogacy is banned in Germany and is punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine, though raising a child born to a surrogate abroad is not illegal. The CDU most recently reaffirmed its opposition to surrogacy at a party congress in February. The contradiction was particularly stark because Spahn himself had, as health minister in 2020, rejected calls to relax the ban, and had written in 2015 that as "a gay man and a Christian" he found it "personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb." Criticism came from within the CDU — including from the party's regional chairman in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania — as well as from politicians across the spectrum, who charged Spahn with hypocrisy.

Spahn initially attempted to defend his decision, telling a podcast that he had "wrestled with myself for a long time" before choosing surrogacy. But by Saturday the pressure had become untenable. Merz had signalled the CDU's national executive committee would take up the matter, and Spahn was notably excluded from the forthcoming meeting. Alexander Hoffmann, head of the allied Christian Social Union's parliamentary group, is expected to take over Spahn's duties while a successor is chosen.

Beyond the immediate ethical debate, political analysts noted an additional dimension to the resignation. Spahn had made little secret of his own ambitions to one day lead Germany, making him an increasingly significant rival to Merz within the party. Some observers pointed out that the timing suited the chancellor, who faces low approval ratings and growing internal dissent. Opposition voices, including Franziska Brantner of the Greens, called the resignation long overdue, describing the surrogacy affair as "merely the final straw," while Die Linke's Luigi Pantisano argued the episode exposed a "double standard" in which the law applies to ordinary citizens but prominent politicians can circumvent it with money.

The case has reignited a broader European debate about surrogacy. France, Spain, and Italy also prohibit the practice, though enforcement approaches differ. Italy made it illegal in 2024 for its citizens to use surrogacy even abroad. France's highest court ruled this month that children born to surrogates overseas must be legally recognised as belonging to their intended parents. Germany shows no sign of revisiting its own ban, with Merz explicitly stating he sees "no reason" to change the law.