Postponed vote on top judge pitches German coalition into crisis

By Thomas Escritt

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's coalition was thrown into disarray on Friday after Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives ordered the last-minute postponement of a vote to elect a judge to the Constitutional Court.

Merz's Christian Democrats said it had taken the decision to pause Friday's parliamentary vote because of the publication of unsubstantiated plagiarism allegations against Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf.

But his Social Democrat coalition partners and the opposition Greens said she was being treated unfairly. Over the past week, conservative legislators have said they were uncomfortable with her support for abortion rights.

This is the second occasion on which the coalition has failed to muster support on a key vote. Merz's own appointment three months ago fell through in the first round of voting.

The Christian Democrats had this week indicated they would support Brosius-Gersdorf, a judge and law professor nominated by the Social Democrats. 

But on Friday they said they had changed their mind after Austrian Stefan Weber, a self-declared "plagiarism hunter", published allegations against Brosius-Gersdorf on X on Thursday evening.

Brosius-Gersdorf did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for a comment. Many comments under Weber's social media post dismissed the allegations, some calling them "nonsense".

"Whatever happens now, this process has been conducted in a very unsavoury way," senior SPD politician Anke Rehlinger said.

"It harms the person in question and the reputation of the court... It really bothers me how a judge, and a woman, is being treated."

The row is an embarrassment for Merz and his ally Jens Spahn, the party's parliamentary leader, whose job includes coordinating votes to preserve the peace in the coalition.

"This is a disaster for parliament, and especially for Jens Spahn and Friedrich Merz and the coalition parties," senior Green Britta Hasselmann said.

Weber said bibliographic references in a PhD thesis by Brosius-Gersdorf had lifted material from her husband's thesis on a similar topic, even though it was published a year later.

The Constitutional Court is one of Germany's most respected and powerful institutions. Its decision to overturn a budget helped trigger the collapse of Germany's last government.

While judges often have open party affiliations, public disagreements over hot-button cultural issues are rare. It members speak with pride about its political neutrality, frequently comparing it favourably with the U.S. Supreme Court.

(Additional reporting by Markus Wacket; Editing by Miranda Murray and Andrew Heavens)