Openly lesbian television host Bettina Böttinger regards Jens Spahn’s resignation as the Union’s parliamentary group leader as a logical move in light of his parenthood with the help of a surrogate mother in the United States. Spahn had not misread his faction for the first time, the 70-year-old said to reporters in Düsseldorf. “As parliamentary group leader, he was no longer tenable.” But she would not go so far as to say that Spahn should also relinquish his Bundestag seat.
Böttinger: Spahn should have seen it coming
To her, it is a mystery that a veteran politician like Spahn (46), who has spent his whole life in politics, misjudged the political momentum of the debate over his surrogacy-parenthood. “He must have seen that this could not work within his own faction,” Böttinger said. “Didn’t he really expect it? Is it truly the case that private life matters more to him in his mid-years than politics, his political ambitions?” All of these questions remain for Böttinger. At the same time, she criticized a perceived “homophobic undertone” in the discussion surrounding Spahn.
Spahn and his husband, Daniel Funke, had announced last Wednesday that they had become parents. A surrogate mother in the United States gave birth to their son, Georg. While that is legal, Spahn and his spouse circumvented a German prohibition on surrogacy that Spahn had supported within the CDU. In the Union, where surrogacy is an emotionally charged issue, a storm of outrage erupted. On Saturday, Spahn yielded to the pressure and informed the CDU/CSU parliamentary group members of his resignation. Now there is, however, a debate about the role of homophobia in Spahn’s resignation, as the Christian Democrat had previously weathered far more serious scandals.
