Germany’s new government is grappling with its first crisis, with infighting over the nomination of a new judge to the country’s highest court. The candidate at the center of the storm, Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, says she has been the subject of death threats over views on abortion that have drawn the ire of the Catholic Church. The story raises questions over Germany’s longstanding legal grayzone on abortion, and is stoking culture war themes such as pandemic vaccinations and whether the far-right AfD should face a ban. In this edition of Berlin Briefing, DW’s Richard Walker, Nina Haase and Michaela Küfner are joined by law professor Markus Kotzur to dig into the legal and constitutional issues, and break down the political implications for a government that had promised to stop the very infighting that brought down its predecessor.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:16 Drama in parliament
02:15 The Constitutional Court
04:13 How judges are selected
08:21 Who is Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf?
09:54 Death threats
10:52 The Catholic Church
13:33 Abortion
18:50 AfD ban
22:35 Who is Jens Spahn?
24:17 The aborted vote
27:02 Angry Social Democrats
30:00 Merz weakened?
33:06 Law professors are concerned
37:18 The AfD and the Court
43:13 Will she withdraw?
49:21 End
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