(Bloomberg) -- The head of Germany’s Christian Democrats came under fire from a key rival in her party over her handling of a rebel faction that caused a nationwide uproar.

CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is meeting with the party’s leadership Friday morning to deal with the fallout from a taboo breach when legislators from her party aligned with the far right to elect a state premier in the former eastern communist state of Thuringia.

“It’s clear that nothing worked,” Armin Laschet, CDU Deputy Chairman, said in an interview on ARD television. The leadership “should have known what would happen there,” he said in reference to the party headquarters.

Asked about Kramp-Karrenbauer’s leadership, Laschet said that the meeting would deal with the Thuringia issue and that all other questions are off the table.

The head of the CDU youth division, Tilman Kuban, also weighed in, telling ARD: “The CDU needs a leadership that is clear, that has a clear stance, a clear message, and is able to exert pressure.”

The criticism comes after AKK, as she is known, failed to convince the local Thuringia chapter to support new elections in the region as a way to clear the slate. Many CDU state representatives fear they could lose their jobs in a new ballot. Their leader, Mike Mohring, said on Friday that he would step down as parliamentary caucus leader but remain as the party’s state chief.

In contrast, the head of the business-friendly Free Democrats, who put up the candidate elected with the help of the populist Alternative for Germany, said he will ask for a vote of confidence when his party leaders meet on Friday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Arne Delfs in Berlin at adelfs@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Raymond Colitt, Andrew Blackman

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