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Germany’s ruling coalition has been plunged into its first major crisis since chancellor Friedrich Merz took office after his conservative MPs rebelled against a supreme court nominee backed by the Social Democrats.
Merz’s coalition was forced to shelve a vote on the appointment of three justices on Friday after it became clear the nominees would not get the required two-third majority in the Bundestag because of dissenters from the chancellor’s CDU/CSU group.
The last-minute kerfuffle underlines mounting tensions within the coalition, only two months after Merz took office on a promise to end the bickering that prematurely ended the coalition of previous chancellor Olaf Scholz.
It also shows how unhappiness among his conservative party base could prove problematic for Merz as he seeks to unleash hundreds of billions of euros of public borrowing to fund defence and infrastructure spending in an attempt to revive the Eurozone’s largest economy.
“This significantly affects the relationship of trust between the coalition partners,” Uwe Jun, a political scientist, said. “You have to be able to rely on agreements. And when you can no longer rely on agreements in a coalition, that shakes the trust.”
On Friday — shortly before the vote and on the eve of parliamentary recess — Merz’s CDU/CSU group informed its SPD coalition partners it would not back the nomination of Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, a law professor.
The official reason for the last minute decision was that allegations of possible plagiarism had emerged overnight and needed to be examined.
The author of the allegations, a blogger and self-described “plagiarism hunter”, on Thursday suggested similarities between footnotes to dissertations by Brosius-Gersdorf and her husband. On Friday he sought to distance himself from the way his work had been used by the CDU/CSU.
Brosius-Gersdorf’s nomination was already contentious even before the allegations, with some Christian Democrats criticising her views, notably on abortion, as too leftwing.
“This attempt at politicising the nomination of supreme court judges is unprecedented” in Germany, said Andrea Römmele, a political scientist at the Hertie School.
The SPD denounced what it called a “smear campaign”.
“I never imagined that we would see debates reminiscent of those on appointing justices to the US Supreme court,” Dirk Wiese, a senior SPD MP, said in parliament. “We have seen a smear campaign in recent days against a highly respected civil law teacher, a highly respected lawyer who is professionally beyond any doubt.”
The party co-led by vice-chancellor Lars Klingbeil now needs to decide whether to stand by its nominee, who could not be reached for comment.
“This day is a disaster for parliament,” said Britta Haßelmann, co-leader of the Green party in parliament.
The row is a reminder of the relative fragility of the coalition, which enjoys a razor-thin 13-seat majority in parliament.
Such vulnerability had also surfaced when Merz became the first would-be chancellor in Germany’s postwar history to fall short of the required absolute majority in his election in parliament. He succeeded on a second attempt.
Tensions also recently emerged within the coalition over a decision to delay electricity tax cuts for consumers.
CSU party leader Markus Söder criticised Klingbeil, who is also finance minister, for not delivering the cuts in his first budget — even though Merz had also backed the reductions, which would have cost about €5.4bn annually.
