Despite being still only 45, Jens Spahn has a tumultuous career behind him. Germany's COVID-era health minister — a job that left him under investigation over misuse of public money — was on Tuesday re-elected leader of the parliamentary group of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union (CSU), with a resounding 85% of the vote.

It's a job previously held by his CDU colleagues Helmut Kohl , Angela Merkel , and Friedrich Merz , and it seems reasonable to assume that Spahn harbors ambitions to one day follow those figures into the chancellery.…