Friedrich Merz faces CDU criticism over reshuffle

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz faced growing criticism from within his centre-right CDU on Wednesday as he completed a cabinet reshuffle prompted by the resignation of parliamentary leader Jens Spahn.

Spahn stepped down this month after it emerged that he and his husband had had a child via a surrogate mother in the United States, despite surrogacy being illegal in Germany and strongly opposed by the CDU.

CDU lawmakers were due to meet Wednesday to formally elect Thorsten Frei, Merz's chief of staff, as Spahn's successor. At the meeting, Merz was expected to face anger from lawmakers over how he handled the reshuffle.

Merz's plan to dismiss Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder leaked last week, but Schnieder was left in the post after Merz's first choice as replacement withdrew.

Tino Sorge, a CDU state secretary in the health department, wrote on Facebook that Merz had dismissed him without speaking to him first. Sorge said the handling raised a question about Merz's leadership style.

Heiko Strohmann, the CDU leader in Bremen, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper that Merz was “running a political party, not a business”. He said the CDU depended on volunteers and elected lawmakers who could not simply be ordered around.

The internal tensions add to pressure on Merz, who is already facing poor poll ratings for himself and for the CDU. The party is currently behind the far-right Alternative for Germany, and the AfD is predicted to significantly outperform the CDU in three eastern German state elections in September.