By the end of the 1990s, Waigel and Minister-President Stoiber of Bavaria were locked in a bitter rivalry for control of the state and its ruling party, the CSU. Stoiber had been a vociferous critic of the creation of a single European currency and he has also infuriated both Kohl and Waigel by proposing that wealthy states like Bavaria be freed from having to underwrite social security costs for poorer states. In late 1998, Stoiber succeeded Waigel as chairman of the CSU.