Merkel and Nuclear Energy Defeated in German State Election, Green Party Gains

Elections in the key German state of Baden-Würtemberg saw Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats defeated, while the Green Party achieved a historic second place victory, March 27.
Merkel and Nuclear Energy Defeated in German State Election, Green Party Gains
3/27/2011
Updated:
3/9/2012
Elections in the key German state of Baden-Würtemberg saw Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) defeated, while the Green Party achieved a historic second place victory, March 27.

According to provisional results reported by German polling agency, Infratest Dimap, the Greens won nearly a quarter of the votes, while the CDU lost 10 percent and the Social Democrats, previously the second most powerful party in the state, came in third place.

Environmental and energy policy issues were the two deciding factors for nearly half of voters, according to the survey by Infratest Dimap.

The accident at Japan’s Fukushima plant has heightened Germans’ wariness of nuclear energy, leading to an upsurge in demonstrations that culminated Saturday in the biggest anti-nuclear protests in German history in four major cities.

Not believing Merkel’s recent about-face on the future of Germany’s own nuclear power, many voters expressed their disapproval with the CDU’s pro-nuclear stance.

“The election was decided in Japan,” the CDU general secretary said, quoted by the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

After nearly six decades in power in the prosperous southwestern state, the CDU is likely to give way to a coalition government of Greens and Social Democrats, headed by the first Green governor in German history.

Also on Sunday, the ruling Social Democrats lost crucial votes in a state election in Rhineland-Palatine. They may now be forced to enter a coalition with the Greens, who saw substantial gains in the state, according to Deutschlandfunk radio.