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Church groups, businessmen, youth, join German anti-nuclear movement

bolstered the current protests beyond the traditional activist base to reach different age groups, church bodies and small businesses specialized in renewable-energy technologies who see their livelihoods at risk.

“The protests are much broader now — they include a lot of young people who now know that nuclear power doesn’t create jobs, but eliminates jobs,”

Merkel Faces `New Dimension’ of Anti-Nuclear Protests, Green Leader Says,  Bloomberg, By Patrick Donahue – Sep 10, 2010 German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces “massive” public protests this fall as demonstrators attempt to derail her plan to prolong the use of nuclear power, the co-leader of the Green Party said.
A movement that includes clean-energy businesses, doctors and students is preparing to confront Merkel over the planned extension of the running time of nuclear plants by an average of 12 years, Claudia Roth, co-chairwoman of the Greens, said in an interview yesterday. While the movement has echoes of the 1970s and 1980s rallies that gave rise to the Green Party, Merkel has awakened a “new dimension” of opposition, Roth said.

Germany’s opposition groups are stepping up their campaign against nuclear power as Merkel seeks to steer the bill granting the extension through parliament. Her Cabinet is set to ratify the energy plan on Sept. 28. While she can rely on her majority to push the plan through the lower house, legal opinion is divided on whether Merkel can bypass the upper chamber, the Bundesrat, where her bloc is outnumbered by the opposition.

Opposition Social Democrats have threatened legal challenges if she attempts to circumvent the Bundesrat…….

A Sept. 18 demonstration, organized by anti-nuclear groups including Campact.de, will feature a march by tens of thousands of protesters to the Reichstag and a symbolic “encircling” of the government quarter in Berlin, Campact director Christoph Bautz said by phone. Further “huge protests” are planned in Gorleben, a nuclear-waste dump, and Stuttgart, Roth said………

The government’s plan is a betrayal of Germany’s “consensus” to exit nuclear energy, said Roth. That has bolstered the current protests beyond the traditional activist base to reach different age groups, church bodies and small businesses specialized in renewable-energy technologies who see their livelihoods at risk.

“The protests are much broader now — they include a lot of young people who now know that nuclear power doesn’t create jobs, but eliminates jobs,” Roth said. “It’s not just the old fighters who are out there protesting, but a lot of young people as well. Old and new movements have come together.”

Merkel Faces `New Dimension’ of Anti-Nuclear Protests, Green Leader Says – Bloomberg

September 11, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, opposition to nuclear | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, reactors