Germany’s coalition hits severe rough patch over court nominee

A serious rift broke out Friday within Germany’s coalition government over the appointment of new judges to the Constitutional Court.

Lawmakers from the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) plan an emergency meeting after Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right bloc – the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) – withdrew support for an SPD-nominated candidate just hours before a parliamentary vote.

The nominee, law professor Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, has drawn conservative criticism for her stances on abortion and backing mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations.

Despite grumbles in the CDU/CSU base, her election seemed all but secured after Merz signaled his support for her nomination earlier this week.

But in a surprise move early Friday, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group decided it would call for the SPD to remove a vote on Brosius-Gersdorf’s nomination from the agenda in the Bundestag, the country’s lower house of parliament.

If the center-left party refuses, sources told dpa that conservatives have threatened to abstain, leaving the SPD candidate well short of the required two-thirds majority.

Sources from the center-right cited a plagiarism allegation against Brosius-Gersdorf that surfaced Thursday. The professor and her universities have yet to respond to requests for comment.

The dispute, which breaks the long-held tradition of consensus-driven appointments to the country’s top court, leaves Merz’s coalition government at risk of a spectacular public falling-out, only two months after it took office.

Tensions have escalated in recent days over the nomination of judges to the Karlsruhe-based Constitutional Court, which ensures compliance with the country’s de facto constitution, the Basic Law.

The CDU/CSU candidate, Günter Spinner, is locked in his own battle to secure a majority without relying on votes from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), a move that would break the much-publicized “firewall” against cooperating with the far-right party.

Conservative leaders have proven unwilling to hold talks with The Left to secure the necessary backing and hinted they would be open to proceeding to a secret vote, leaving it unclear whether AfD’s support is necessary for Spinner’s election.