Only a few months ago, Jens Spahn and his husband Daniel Funke became parents to a son via a surrogacy arrangement in the United States—a move that cost Spahn the leadership of his party’s parliamentary group in mid-July (TheColu.mn reported). Now, the conservative politician’s family life is once again stirring political tensions in Berlin.
The trigger for the current debate is Spahn’s absence at a pivotal session of the Budget Committee, which is currently intensively examining the 2027 federal budget. After the session, Bild published photos by a “Bild Reader Reporter” that allegedly show Spahn with his baby and his husband at the airport in Olbia, Sardinia — captioned with the accusation: “Family vacation instead of the Bundestag.”
The Bild newspaper soon deleted the article, insisting that the image was taken in a private setting and violated internal guidelines.
The Greens’ budget-policy spokeswoman Paula Piechotta promptly seized on the issue on X and questioned how the vacation coverage fit with the assertion that Spahn had been absent from the committee due to illness. “It will certainly be clarified,” Piechotta wrote in her tweet.
Jens Spahn was today absent from the Budget Committee due to illness. Die BILD schrieb vor einer Stunde allerdings, er sei im Urlaub. Jetzt ist der Text wieder offline. Wird sich sicher aufklären. pic.twitter.com/IOraXAZoa8
Dr. Paula Piechotta MdB — auch auf Bluesky (@PaulaPiechotta) September 23, 2026
Illness report or rainbow-family everyday life?
Whether Spahn actually reported ill is the subject of conflicting accounts: Several committee members told Spiegel (paywalled) that they had heard of an illness notification. Spahn himself denies having called in sick. A spokesperson stressed that Spahn had apologized properly, “for family reasons,” a substitute had been arranged, and that this was by no means a vacation trip. According to information from the committee, internal communications indicated Spahn was missing “due to a child’s illness” — a circumstance that also falls under family reasons for members of parliament.
Union MPs irritated again by Spahn
The incident reportedly rekindled irritation within the Union faction, according to Spiegel. Spahn had, since his resignation as head of the Union parliamentary group, invested significant energy into apologizing within his party for his private conduct surrounding the surrogacy (TheColu.mn reported).
Earlier this month it became known that Spahn would soon be represented on the Budget Committee—the Bundestag’s most influential committee—marking what many viewed as a comeback attempt by the embattled politician.
