Green Party’s victory as Germans reject nuclear power

The Green vote was helped by the argument in Germany over its 17nuclear power plants, heightened by the Fukushima disaster

German Greens hail state victory in vote overshadowed byFukushima, Helen Pidd inBerlin, guardian.co.uk,  27 March 2011  

• ‘Historic’ first ever victory in regional Landtag vote

• Chancellor suffers after U-turn on nuclear power

The Green party has taken power from Angela Merkel‘s conservatives in one of Germany‘s richest states, preliminary results from the Baden-Württemberg elections show.

The chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union party, or CDU, had ruled the region’s state legislature for almost 58 years, but found itself on the wrong side of the nuclear debate following Fukushima…..The Green vote was helped by the argument in Germany over its 17nuclear power plants, heightened by the Fukushima disaster. In the aftermath, Merkel performed an 180-degree policy change by announcing the closure of seven stations built before 1980. She also said she was committed to speeding up total withdrawal from nuclear power.

This was six months after she had ignored public opinion by extending the life of the 17 plants by an average 12 years; ….http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/27/german-green-victory-fukushima

April 28, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Germany, politics