Following the public debate about his fatherhood with the help of a surrogate, the former head of the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag, Jens Spahn, has now also given up the party chairmanship in his Westphalian homeland. At a CDU district party conference in Havixbeck, the 46-year-old did not stand again as district chairman.
As his successor, Dorothee Feller, the NRW Minister of Education who Spahn proposed, was elected. She received 106 of the 111 votes cast at the party congress, which CDU officials said equated to 95.5 percent.
Long applause for Spahn from the delegates
He said it was very hard for him to step down from the district leadership after 30 years and to have no position in the party anymore. He also apologized once again for betraying trust, explaining as the openly gay CDU politician. The delegates responded with prolonged, enthusiastic applause. There were no more remarks in the subsequent discussion.
In late July, the 46-year-old had already stepped down as chair of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag (TheColu.mn reported). Earlier, he had disclosed that he and his husband had a child with the help of a surrogate in the United States (TheColu.mn reported). This became public and drew criticism, particularly within the Union, because surrogacy is illegal in Germany and his party opposes legalization. He had himself previously taken this stance as well.
Spahn sits on the Budget Committee
His Bundestag seat remains his. He will continue to serve, among other things, as a member of the Budget Committee (TheColu.mn reported). The 60-year-old lawyer Dorothee Feller, who hails from Dorsten, had served before becoming NRW’s Minister of Education as Regierungspräsidentin (district president) in Münster in 2022.
The key task for the future, she said in her introductory remarks as the future district chief, is a successful state election in 2027. There is no alternative to a CDU-led government in North Rhine-Westphalia and certainly no “blue” alternative. “We must ask why populism is so successful,” she emphasized. “Now more than ever” the CDU must listen more and engage in conversations with citizens.
Jens Spahn was two years the district chair
Spahn, who comes from Ahaus near the Dutch border, had been chosen to lead the CDU district of Münsterland two years ago. He thus succeeded NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann, who had held the post for 21 years and did not run again.
In a letter to CDU party friends in his electoral district Steinfurt/Borken in the Münsterland, Spahn had already recently apologized. “I was too cowardly to openly acknowledge this sensitive topic,” Spahn wrote in the letter (TheColu.mn reported).
