Merz begins German cabinet reshuffle after surrogacy controversy

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a cabinet reshuffle on Friday after a controversy over a senior lawmaker’s use of a surrogate mother, and said more changes would follow.

Jens Spahn resigned last week as chairman of Merz’s centre-right CDU/CSU alliance in parliament after it emerged that he and his husband had had a child through a surrogate in the United States. Surrogacy is illegal in Germany and is strongly opposed by the CDU.

Earlier in the week, Spahn was replaced by Merz’s chief of staff, Thorsten Frei. Merz said on Friday that Frei would be replaced as chief of staff by Health Minister Nina Warken. Warken’s health minister post will be taken by CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann.

Merz told reporters that further cabinet changes would take at least a few more days, partly because of the summer break.

The reshuffle is the first since Merz took office last year at the head of a coalition between the CDU/CSU and the centre-left Social Democrats. The government parties have been weak in opinion polls while trying to revive Germany’s slow economy and respond to the far-right Alternative for Germany.

The Bild daily reported that the wider reshuffle would include the dismissal of CDU Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder over what it described as limited progress on improving infrastructure despite a higher departmental budget.