Coalition crisis: Plagiarism allegations stop Brosius-Gersdorf's election of judges!

Coalition crisis: Plagiarism allegations stop Brosius-Gersdorf's election of judges!

What's going on in Berlin? A power struggle between the Union and the SPD is causing a lot of turmoil in the government coalition. The reason for the crisis is the controversial candidacy of Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf for a judge's position at the Federal Constitutional Court. The election of the three constitutional judges planned for Friday was canceled at short notice after allegations of plagiarism emerged against Brosius-Gersdorf. These allegations were used by the Union as an opportunity to remove the vote from the agenda, which led to a tense climate in the coalition, as Merkur reports.

The nomination of lawyers, including Brosius-Gersdorf, has so far been a routine matter between the Union and the SPD. Jens Spahn, Union parliamentary group leader, initially even claimed to support the SPD proposals. Now he calls himself one of the losers in this political power game, as he and Chancellor Friedrich Merz face severe criticism for suddenly canceling the election.

Accusations of plagiarism in the discussion

The plagiarism allegations were made public by scientist Stefan Weber, who compared Brosius-Gersdorf's dissertation with her husband's habilitation thesis. However, Weber qualified the allegations and made it clear that they did not necessarily indicate plagiarism. Nevertheless, the University of Hamburg has so far seen no reason to review Brosius-Gersdorf's work. For the SPD, the news of the allegations came out of the blue, after approval of the candidates had already been signaled a month and a half ago.

SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch described the situation as a “disaster”. Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil also called for the Union to be held accountable and criticized Spahn's approach, who informed about the cancellation via SMS. The incident has seriously damaged trust within the coalition and the future of the judge's positions currently remains uncertain. The Greens are already calling for a special session of the Bundestag to reschedule the election.

The perspective of federal politics

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also spoke out and described the situation as “damaged”. He also calls for the matter to be clarified quickly with regard to the election of constitutional judges. The discussions within the coalition could prove to be permanently challenging for the black-red coalition, as Tagesschau reports.

The Bundestag will meet again on September 10th, by which time it may be necessary for the oldest member of the election committee to obtain the proposals for the Federal Constitutional Court if no agreement is reached by then. This turbulent situation shows how quickly the political landscape in Germany can change and that even seemingly simple votes can lead to deeper conflicts.