Germany: Merkel will not seek re-election as CDU party chairwoman

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will give up leadership of her center-right Christian Democrat Union (CDU) party after 18 years in the post, German media has reported.

Merkel announced during a meeting with officials that she will not seek to run for re-election at the party's convention in December. But she made clear that she wanted to remain as chancellor, a position she has held since 2005.

The announcement is a sign of Merkel's weakened power within her own party, and waning popularity in the country.

Both parties under Merkel's ruling coalition -- the CDU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) -- suffered heavy losses in a regional election over the weekend.

Monday's developments come after the CDU came home first but bled support in a vote in the western state of Hesse on Sunday, the second electoral setback in as many weeks for Merkel's conservative alliance.

Standing down from the party chair would allow a new CDU chairman or woman to build a profile before the next national election, due in 2021. Merkel's favoured successor is CDU party secretary general Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

While the CDU remained the largest party in the election, which was held in the central state of Hesse, results were down 10% from the previous election.

This weekend's election is a second blow to Markel's fragile "grand coalition" government. On October 14, the Christian Social Union, or CSU -- the Bavarian sister party to the CDU -- lost its majority in the Bavarian state parliament.

Speaking on October 15, Merkel admitted that voters had lost trust in the government and that it was her job to "make sure that trust is won back."

"I will work on that with as much vigor as I can," she added.

Bavaria bore the brunt of the 2015 refugee crisis; at its peak, thousands of asylum seekers were crossing into the state every day. Since then, both Merkel and her CSU allies have been criticized for their management of the influx.