“He joined the Christian Democrats' youth organization, the Junge Union, at 15, became head of the local CDU branch at 19, and was elected to the Bundestag just three years later, in 2002.”

“He gained a Master's Degree in political science while already in parliament.”

“He became the party's health policy spokesperson, spent three years as a parliamentary state secretary in the Finance Ministry under the veteran CDU politician Wolfgang Schäuble, before joining the Cabinet himself as health minister in 2018, in Angela Merkel's fourth and final government.”

“Under his oversight, the Health Ministry ordered huge quantities of protective equipment using a so-called "open-house" process — something deemed outside the EU's rules for government acquisitions.”

“at one stage, Spahn's ministry bought 570,000 FFP-2 masks from Burda, his husband's employer.”

“The German federal court of audit, the Bundesrechnungshof, sharply criticized what became known as the "mask affair."”

“Spahn's successor in the Health Ministry, Karl Lauterbach, ordered a special investigation into the scandal, whose report, leaked to the media last June, concluded that it cost the state billions in taxpayers' money.”

“the minister was under fire for taking a loan to buy a villa in Berlin for €4.1 million from a bank where he had previously been on the administrative board”

“He outspokenly criticized Merkel's handling of the refugee crisis in 2015”

“in 2024... he suggested that EU law needed to be suspended to deal with illegal immigration.”

“As health minister, he once even advocated using ultrasounds to check the age of illegal immigrants.”

“suggesting that the government should treat the Alternative for Germany (AfD) like any other opposition party — despite the fact that sections of the far-right party have been officially deemed anti-constitutional.”