(NYT) – Jens Spahn, a top leader of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party, resigned his post after announcing that he had a baby by surrogate, which is illegal in Germany.

It was a dizzying end to an overnight scandal that had engulfed the start of the German government’s normally sleepy summer season — and which reignited a smoldering national debate over surrogate parenthood.

At the center of the storm was Jens Spahn, a key ally and sometimes rival of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, both members of the center-right Christian Democrats. (Read More)