German politician resigns over surrogate controversy

A prominent figure in German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's centre-right party has resigned his leadership post, party sources said, amid controversy over his use of a surrogate mother in the US despite a ban on the practice in Germany.

"In recent days, I have come to realise that my personal happiness in starting a family with my husband and becoming a father is incompatible with my political office," Jens Spahn, the chairman of the CDU's faction in parliament, wrote in a letter to a colleague.

Mr Spahn and Mr Merz's CDU party is vehemently opposed to surrogate pregnancies, having most recently voted to maintain Germany's ban at a party congress in February.

Mr Spahn and his husband recently became parents to a child by using a surrogate mother in the United States.

That decision immediately attracted criticism from within the CDU after the news broke in the German press on Thursday, including calls for Mr Spahn to resign, as well as charges of hypocrisy from other politicians.

Mr Spahn had sought to defend himself in a podcast interview with the Bild newspaper yesterday.

He said he "had "wrestled with myself for a long time, including on the issue of surrogacy" before finally deciding to have a child that way.

Mr Merz declined to weigh in publicly on Mr Spahn's decision yesterday but said that the issue would be discussed by the party's national executive committee.

The chancellor also said he saw "no reason" to change Germany's laws on surrogate pregnancy or alter the CDU's longstanding opposition.

Mr Spahn, 46, previously served as health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic under former chancellor Angela Merkel.

In recent years, he has become a prominent voice on the CDU's right-wing flank, notably pushing for a more hardline stance on immigration.