Germany’s Bundestag on 11 July called off a planned vote on three new judges for the Federal Constitutional Court after the conservative CDU/CSU demanded the removal of SPD nominee Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf from the ballot. The Union cited fresh plagiarism allegations and what several of its lawmakers described as the professor’s “ideological” positions on abortion, compulsory vaccination and a potential AfD ban. The ballot had been expected to confirm Brosius-Gersdorf and fellow SPD candidate Ann-Katrin Kaufhold, alongside the Union’s own choice, labour-court judge Günter Spinner. All three had been endorsed by the Bundestag’s cross-party Wahlausschuss on 8 July, but Brosius-Gersdorf’s liberal views on reproductive rights and past support for an AfD prohibition triggered growing resistance in the CDU/CSU ranks. Party whips warned they could not guarantee the two-thirds majority required for election. After emergency talks between the coalition partners failed to break the impasse, the Bundestag removed the entire vote from its agenda. The collapse marks the first major rift in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s five-month-old coalition: SPD leaders accused the Union of yielding to a “smear campaign”, while CDU/CSU deputies said the court must remain “above any doubt”. Bundestagspräsidentin Julia Klöckner suggested rerunning the election in September. SPD floor leader Matthias Miersch has proposed that Brosius-Gersdorf address the CDU/CSU caucus to answer doubts, but Union officials have yet to commit. Until replacements are agreed, the terms of the outgoing judges are automatically extended, leaving Germany’s top court understaffed and the coalition searching for a face-saving compromise over the summer.