Postponed vote on top judge pitches German coalition into crisis

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By Thomas Escritt

BERLIN (Reuters) -A planned vote on appointing three new judges to Germany’s Constitutional Court was shelved on Friday, as conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition struggled to muster a parliamentary majority for the second time in three months.

Other parties, including his Social Democrat coalition partners, charged the Christian Democrats with bringing Germany’s highest court into disrepute and using spurious plagiarism allegations as a pretext for shelving a vote the coalition would not have won.

The conservatives had initially sought to postpone a vote only on appointing Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, a law professor and the Social Democrats’ nominee, who was opposed by many conservatives because of her support for abortion rights.

“I never imagined we’d see debates in our country reminiscent of those on appointing justices to the United States Supreme Court,” the SPD’s Dirk Wiese told parliament.

“The kind of witch hunt we’ve seen against a distinguished law professor this week should make us fear for the state of democracy in our country,” he added.

The failure to muster a majority is an embarrassment for Merz and for his ally Jens Spahn, the conservatives’ parliamentary leader, whose job it is to ensure his legislators toe the coalition line – something he had been confident of achieving as recently as Monday.

The conservatives blamed their volte-face on allegations published on Thursday evening by Stefan Weber, a self-proclaimed “plagiarism hunter” who has claimed a string of politicians’ scalps despite widespread doubts over his methods.

Brosius-Gersdorf did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for a comment on Weber’s allegations, which appeared to accuse her of plagiarising footnotes in her thesis from one published after her own.

“This man brings plagiarism charges against half the republic,” said the Green’s Britta Hasselmann, calling the conservatives’ decision a disaster that would harm the court’s reputation.

Weber later backtracked, telling the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that he had merely flagged “possible unethical authorship” and had not accused Brosius-Gersdorf of plagiarism.

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

While judges often have open party affiliations, public disagreements over topical cultural issues are rare. Its 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)