BERLIN Jared Goff Jersey , Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Christian Social Union (CSU) leader Host Seehofer hit back at mounting criticism on Wednesday after his party suffered heavy losses in Germany's recent federal elections.
Seehofer, who also acts as the governor of the German state of Bavaria, urged fellow party members who blame him for the CSU's poor performance in the election to refrain from dragging internal debates about personnel and strategy into the public domain.
"The damage is already done," Seehofer told reporters, warning that the CSU risked becoming a laughingstock. Instead of infighting Samson Ebukam Jersey , the party needed to project unity as it entered coalition negotiations in order to boost its legislative leverage in the next German government.
"This weakens us in Berlin of course," Seehofer said, asking how the party could assume a strong position versus its potential coalition partners when it appeared to be in disarray.
The CSU received 38.8 percent of the Bavarian vote in Sunday's federal elections, down by more than 10 percentage points compared with the last national poll. The CSU is a regional party which only competes politically in Bavaria and traditionally forms a joint parliamentary faction with Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at the federal level.
Seehofer's party is widely expected to join a so-called "Jamaica" coalition with the CDU, Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Greens (Gruene). The Bavarian governor voiced concern John Johnson Jersey , however, that the CSU had reached a fork in road, and whether it remained capable of governing.
Speaking ahead of a party committee meeting, Seehofer admitted that the last two days had been "burdensome" for the CSU. He described resolving inner party strife as a more urgent and complicated task than prospective coalition negotiations.
Earlier, honorary CSU chairman Edmund Stoiber described Sunday's electoral outcome as a "historic defeat" which posed a threat to the party's identity. The CSU now had to "substantially push back" the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Cooper Kupp Jersey , he said.
