How a routine vote blew up German politics | Berlin Briefing

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 For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/ Follow DW on social media: ►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwnews ►TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dwnews ►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschewellenews/ ►Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwnews Für Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https://www.youtube.com/dwdeutsch Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1 #germany #government #culture