Germany’s centre-right CDU/CSU bloc has pulled a special Bundestag session that was to confirm Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf as judge at the Federal Constitutional Court, amid mounting objections to the law professor’s past writings and plagiarism allegations. Parliamentary sources said the group’s leadership informed coalition partner SPD that the candidacy could no longer be defended after internal revolt and public criticism of her views on abortion, vaccination mandates and a possible ban on the far-right AfD. The 53-year-old Potsdam academic responded on 15 July with a 14-page statement issued via the Berlin firm Redeker Sellner Dahs. She branded the media coverage of her scholarship “unzutreffend, unsachlich und intransparent”, rejected claims she favoured legalised abortion up to birth and insisted she had merely highlighted a constitutional dilemma over the unborn child’s human-dignity status. Brosius-Gersdorf also defended her analysis of religious dress in courtrooms and gender-parity election models, saying selective quotations had produced a “Zerrbild” of her work. Pressure intensified after Chancellor Friedrich Merz answered “Ja” in parliament last week when asked whether he could support a nominee accused of denying unborn children human dignity—an exchange that unsettled conservative MPs. Prominent critics now range from veteran feminist Alice Schwarzer, who faults Brosius-Gersdorf’s tolerance of headscarves for trainee lawyers, to Catholic Archbishop Herwig Gössl, who called her abortion arguments “nicht hinnehmbar”. With no new vote scheduled, the coalition must decide whether to field an alternative candidate or wait for a possible clarification of the plagiarism review. Brosius-Gersdorf says her lawyer will address remaining accusations on Tuesday but concedes that “es kann durchaus passieren”, she may not take a seat in Karlsruhe.