Jens Spahn under pressure: Does Merz drop his parliamentary group leader?

On Friday afternoon, when everything went wrong, the green group leader Britta Haßelmann stood in the Bundestag plenary hall and called: “Today is a bad day for parliament, democracy and the Federal Constitutional Court!” Then she looked directly at the head of the Union faction, who sat only a few meters away opposite her and continued: “It is an irresponsible situation in which she, Jens Spahn, brought us!”

Green and left clapped frenetically. But also many MPs from the coalition partner SPD applauded. The fraction line of the coalition formed just two months ago: it was suddenly clearly recognizable.

Spahn lowered his head, mashed slightly and then looked straight ahead, to Haßelmann. He knew: he had to go through now.

But the question is not whether Spahn survives the attacks from the opposition. The question is: will his faction be held to him? Or does she completely apart? Finally, Spahn had just had to deduct the election of three constitutional judges because many of his own MPs refused to follow him.

The new disaster is not only damaged. The Federal Chancellor also looked plenty of saddened by the government bank on Friday. What will he do? How does he deal with Spahn now?

After Merz ‘election to the Chancellor failed in the first attempt, the party he had led gave the Bundestag the next embarrassing premiere: The freestyle had to be canceled by the Federal Republic.

While the SPD lets its anger run on Spahn almost free, the trouble grows in the CDU. Top people from the party cleared the star A that Spahn acted at least negligently and thus indebted the location. Former Saarland CDU Prime Minister and Federal Constitutional judge Peter Müller spoke openly to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, which many have only wanted to say so far: It was “blatant leadership failure of the Union”.

The party internal criticism sets early and fundamentally. The Union faction had been driven on the subject of judge elections for months, it is said. The slamassel started in the last phase of the past parliamentary period under the opposition parliamentary group leader Merz.

When the constitutional judge Josef Christ resigned at the end of November 2024, the CDU and CSU were with the replacement. They proposed Robert Seegmüller, a highly respected federal administrative judge. But after the Merz Union, together with the AfD and FDP, enforced its migration application against the minority coalition of the SPD and the Greens, the government factions struck back. Above all, the Greens ensured that the Seegmüller, which was considered to be very conservative, did not even come to the vote. The position in Karlsruhe remained vacant.

After the new election and government formation had been completed, the Union faction under Spahn relied on the federal work judge Günter Spinner, who is himself a second election. For this purpose, the SPD agreed that in parallel the two recently free judges will be filled. The Social Democrats nominated Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf and Ann-Katrin Kaufhold.

Spahn agreed. Together with the SPD, the Union faction tip proposed the three-person package solution to the Greens. The opposition faction also agreed. The necessary second-third majority thus stood in the responsible election committee of the Bundestag.

Spahn ignored the fact that votes from left or AfD would also be needed for the later choice in the plenum. SPD and Greens could talk to the left, it said from the Union. For the CDU, however, the delimitation decision to AfD and Left Party applies

This risky becoming a shon-in-house tactics imploded publicly this week. An alliance of AfD, ultra-right media and some Catholic associations suddenly worked on the liberal attitude of Brosius-Gersdorf for abortion. Spahn obviously underestimated the multi -track campaign and the resistance, which grew in his own fraction. And Merz also let the matter run for the most part.

It was only on Thursday that it became clear to the two that the vote could fail. But again they waited to ask the SPD for a postponement of the election on Friday morning, just under an hour before the start of the Bundestag session.

The major damage caused by this also causes frustration in the CDU because the government it led saw on the right track. The budget introduced into the Bundestag, the “investment booster” in the Federal Council decided, many important laws in the pipeline: that was the signal that Merz tried to send on Friday when he appeared in the country chamber. A signal with which the party wanted to go into the summer break.

But the plan was destroyed by the canceled judge’s election. Instead, Spahn has completed the worst start of a government parliamentary group leader in the history of the Federal Republic. After the almost admitted chancellor’s election, he was burdened by ever new revelations about his role in masking business-until the debacle of Friday ruined his maker image.

It gets more lonely around Spahn. This also applies to the media. The “Bild” newspaper, traditionally weighed to the parliamentary group leader, attacked him more sharply than ever. “This disaster has a name: Jens Spahn,” she says, summarizing the general commentary quite aptly. At the same time, she quoted newspaper “Well -known” but unnamed Bundestag members who scolded that Spahn did not immediately ask the question of trust in the parliamentary group.

The opponents from far left to right wing got warm anyway. The catchphrase “#spahnrueckfrezt” is already on the social channel X. At the same time, the AfD is celebrating there for its next victory over the established parties.

Spahn is still protected by the fact that it is systematic for Merz. When it wobbles, the entire shop wobbles. So far, no opponent in the faction is not in sight. Spahn still has many supporters in the faction and party, especially among the younger ones.

Hendrik Wüst publicized himself publicly on Saturday. “Jens showed humility and took responsibility,” said the CDU Prime Minister of Spahn’s home country of North Rhine-Westphalia. “This is also political leadership.”

But much, if not everything, should depend on whether Spahn with the coalition partner SPD in the almost two -month break – or up to a possible special meeting in August – finds a majority -capable arrangement. As long as the Social Democrats hold on to their candidate Brosius-Gersdorf, this should be almost impossible.

So it will be a hot summer for Spahn. He has to move the SPD to give in, get the Greens off the tree and integrate the left without questioning the delimitation decision – and this with damaged authority on a partly destroyed basis of trust.

The likelihood of the new failure is correspondingly high. In this case, Merz should pull the strain the simplest of all political bills: does my parliamentary group leader harm me more than that he benefits me? Then Jens Spahn really had a problem.