Criticism of Jens Spahn for vacationing during a committee meeting

The former CDU parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn is criticized for a vacation trip and his resulting absence from a meeting of the budget committee. This is what ARD, Stern and Spiegel report. Accordingly, Spahn is said to have been about to be kicked out of the budget committee. He has only recently become a member of the committee.

Spahn is said to have been absent from a committee meeting on Wednesday. A little later, the Bild newspaper published an article including a photo that supposedly showed the politician with his family at Olbia Airport in Sardinia. Shortly afterwards both were deleted by the newspaper. The newspaper's corrections blog says that they had "violated their own rules" and that the photo was "taken in a private setting." Spahn was absent from the budget committee "with an apology," the Bild newspaper also reports.

Spahn is said to have justified his absence because his child was ill, reports ARD. Because of the incident, the budget working group of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group met for an extraordinary meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss how to deal with Spahn in the future, it is said.

According to ARD, a majority of MPs are said to have advocated for Spahn to be removed from the influential committee. Many members of the parliamentary group would see Spahn's credibility as damaged. The former parliamentary group leader should initially be allowed to remain a member of the committee until December.

This article will continue to be updated.