German CSU leader confirms to step down

The leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), Erwin Huber, confirmed yesterday that he was resigning after his party scored its worst result in decades in a state election.

"At the special party conference (next month) I will vacate my position," Mr Huber told reporters at a news conference in Munich.

The CSU, sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), lost the absolute majority it had held in the Bavarian parliament for nearly half a century in a vote in the southern state on Sunday. Earlier, party sources said that Mr Huber would step aside and be replaced by Horst Seehofer, Germany's agriculture and consumer minister.