Ally urges sister party chief to quit

A senior member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party has urged the head of the allied Bavarian CSU party to follow her example and step down as party leader after poor election results.

Merkel said yesterday that her fourth term as chancellor would be her last and that she would step down as leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU). Tobias Hans, CDU premier in the western state of Saarland, called on its Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) sister party leader Horst Seehofer — who, as interior minister in Merkel’s federal government, had unsettled voters by criticising the chancellor — to follow suit and step down. “The fact is that Angela Merkel has given an example of how to take responsibility after a poor election result,” Hans told Die Welt newspaper. “Angela Merkel has managed to deliver a self-determined departure as party leader. This is also my wish for colleague Horst Seehofer,” Hans added. There was no immediate response from Seehofer.