Merz’s fresh start quickly falls apart – POLITICO

BERLIN — In normal times, Germany’s parliamentary summer recess is when top politicians get to exhale, and journalists are left to forage for so-called Sommerloch stories: summer-fillers about runaway animals and mysterious predators whose menace tends to fade on closer inspection. 

No such luck in 2026. Chancellor Friedrich Merz might wish the growing threat to his leadership were an overblown summer tale. But in Berlin, the beast is real enough. 

Discontent in Merz’s party — the conservative Christian Democratic Union — has been mounting for two weeks now, as controversy over a senior figure’s decision to become a parent through surrogacy has spiraled into the gravest crisis of his chancellorship.