Usually what brings down a politician is less the original action, more the hypocrisy or cover-up. In the case of Jens Spahn, until recently one of Germany’s most important conservative members of parliament, it was not a failure to be open. He admitted what he had done and was proud of it, to the point of tears. The problem was that he seemed to forget that it contradicted the moral mores that he and his party advocated.

The crime? Paying a woman in the United States to bear a child on behalf of him and his same-sex partner. In Germany, such a transaction is against the law—as it is in a host of European states, including France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Usually what brings down a politician is less the original action, more the hypocrisy or cover-up. In the case of Jens Spahn, until recently one of Germany’s most important conservative members of parliament, it was not a failure to be open. He admitted what he had done and was proud of it, to the point of tears. The problem was that he seemed to forget that it contradicted the moral mores that he and his party advocated.

The crime? Paying a woman in the United States to bear a child on behalf of him and his same-sex partner. In Germany, such a transaction is against the law—as it is in a host of European states, including France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

The ban leads couples, heterosexual and same-sex, to turn to brokers in other countries or sometimes directly to individuals. This is entirely legal, and many people do it. The problem in Spahn’s case is that he was the leader of the parliamentary party of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which only months ago reaffirmed its ban on domestic commercial surrogacy. He was in the room and nodded it through, even though he knew at the time that a woman was carrying his future child. And he repeatedly advocated for the ban.

Sensing the dilemma, Spahn then did a touchy-feely interview with the mass-circulation daily Bild-Zeitung, gushing at the imminent arrival of the newborn, at no time appreciating the mismatch between rhetoric and reality.

Cue a furor, and within a couple of days, Chancellor Friedrich Merz was required to invite Spahn to resign. I say “required,” but in fact, Merz was mighty pleased to have gotten rid of a potential threat, a man who was a perennial thorn, someone who was seen as just a tad too close to the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Spahn has one thing in common with Merz: consistently low opinion poll ratings and a long list of enemies. Several other big fish in the CDU appeared to enjoy his comeuppance. But that doesn’t quite explain the opprobrium that was heaped on him or why it was this issue rather than other previous controversies—not least his handling of protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was health minister—that finished him off.

Spahn’s downfall can only be........

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