Merkel’s Bavarian allies elect new head, ushering in new era

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies have elected a new leader, a change that offers Germany’s center-right a chance to put behind it persistent bickering over recent years.
The 52-year-old Markus Soeder was elected unopposed in Munich on Saturday to lead the Christian Social Union, the Bavaria-only sister to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.
Soeder replaces the 69-year-old Horst Seehofer, the CSU leader for the past decade and the most prominent do