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.

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