German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave an emotional farewell speech to her ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) as she stepped down as party leader on Friday and was given a standing ovation of over six minutes.

Her conservative party of 1,001 representatives, among them 658 male and 343 females, was set to vote later in the day to decide on a successor to Merkel, its leader of 18 years. She decided not to rerun in October, after suffering major setbacks in two state elections earlier this year.