Another resignation: Jens Spahn is giving up his seat on the budget committee

dpa/taz | According to information from the German Press Agency, former Union parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn is withdrawing from the Bundestag's budget committee. The dpa has a corresponding message from the CDU politician to the Union MPs in the committee, which was first reported by “Spiegel”.

In the message, Spahn writes: "Dear colleagues, after careful consideration over the weekend, I will give up my seat in the HHA. Everything surrounding me is currently so politicized that normal work will hardly be possible. I also notice in and within myself that my resignation in July is still far too fresh to start again as if nothing had happened."

In consultation with parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei, he will initially concentrate on his work in the constituency and on his family, Spahn wrote. “We will decide some time later what the main focus of my work will be,” he added. The message is signed “Your Jens”.

With this step, Spahn is reacting to excitement over his absence from the plenary session on two days of the last week of meetings. The reason was the publication of a photo of Spahn by “Bild”, which is said to show him with his son in his arms on the Italian island of Sardinia during the current week of the Bundestag session. “Bild” later withdrew the photo. It was “created in a private setting” and by publishing it, “Bild” had “violated its own rules,” they said.

According to information from the German Press Agency, Spahn's absence caused irritation among members of the CDU and CSU. According to reports from “Stern”, “Spiegel” and ARD, there was a discussion in the parliamentary group’s budget working group on Friday after several of the 14 members were said to have called for Spahn to be kicked out of the Bundestag committee.

The parliamentary group leadership intervened and in the end a kind of probationary period was agreed until the end of the year, the media reported unanimously. There are said to have been calls for Spahn to voluntarily withdraw from the committee.

Spahn resigned as parliamentary group leader in July after he and his husband became parents with the help of a surrogate mother - which sparked massive outrage within the party. Surrogacy is prohibited in Germany. The Union advocates that this ban be maintained. At the beginning of September, the parliamentary group leadership announced that Spahn would be given the position on the budget committee.

According to “Stern”, Spahn himself explained the two-day absence with “family reasons”. “A representation for the budget committee meeting was organized, as is usual,” the media quoted Spahn’s entourage as saying.

At the beginning of July, Jens Spahn spoke out in favor of tightening the rules on sick leave. The coalition between the Union and the SPD had agreed at the time that a certificate of incapacity for work must be presented from the first day of illness. In addition, it should no longer be possible to receive sick leave over the phone. “It is a question of fairness towards colleagues, who sometimes come to work with a slight headache, that there must be proof of incapacity to work,” said Spahn at the time.