GERMANY - A member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own party said their conservative CDU needs “new party leadership,” accusing Merkel of shifting the party further to the left. Alexander Mitsch, who leads a right-leaning group within the CDU, in an interview on Monday criticized the party’s immigration policies in recent years as well as the loss of voters’ support in September’s national election. “Now after this election debacle, in which the CDU had the worst result since 1949 … the party leadership is obviously not ready to correct anything,” he told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, referencing the CDU’s drop to 26.8 percent in the election, compared to 34.1 percent in the prior 2013 election. “That brings us then to the realization that we need new party leadership.”