German conservative leader Jens Spahn resigns over surrogacy scandal

Published Jul 23, 01:00 PM UTC

Jens Spahn, the parliamentary leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party CSU, resigned on July 18, 2026, after a major hypocrisy scandal. Spahn publicly announced on July 15 that he and his husband had a baby boy via a surrogate mother in the United States. This revelation sparked outrage because surrogacy is illegal in Germany, and Spahn, a former conservative health minister, had previously argued that the ban should remain in place. Voters and political observers viewed his actions as brazen hypocrisy. The scandal has thrown Friedrich Merz's conservative government into turmoil just as it was beginning to stabilize. The article, published by The Economist on July 23, 2026, highlights the political fallout and the damage to the CDU/CSU's credibility.