Voters turn their backs on 'strategic' Merkel
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday March 29, 2011
LONDON: Germany's richest state has ousted Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives from power for the first time in 58 years, embracing the Greens and throwing doubt on her political future.A Greens-led alliance with the Social Democrats won a four-seat majority in the parliament of the southern state of Baden-Wurttemberg in a direct response to the Japanese nuclear crisis.Close to 250,000 people took to the streets in Germany over the weekend to protest against the use of nuclear power.It now seems that the day dubbed "Super Sunday" - which saw a record number of 11 million turn out - will almost certainly lead to the election of a Greens Party prime minister to lead one of the nation's 16 federal states for the first time.The Greens Party leader, Winfried Kretschmann, described the result as "a historic victory" and pledged an immediate push to "change things". The 62-year-old is now expected to move as quickly as possible to increase investment in solar energy in south-west Germany and to shut down nuclear power stations.Dr Merkel, who reacted quickly to the Japanese crisis - pledging closure of seven German plants of the same vintage as the Fukushima complex - was accused of a cynical political response.She had previously ordered that the life of the nation's 17 reactors be extended. However, voters reacted cynically to the change with some polls showing that two-thirds of voters did not believe she was genuine.The Greens won 24 per cent of the vote in the region and with the Social Democrats, who won 23 per cent, they can create a substantial alliance.The liberal Free Democrats fared badly in the poll too, losing half of their seats in the parliament. The German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, is a Free Democrat and questions are now being asked also about his future.Dr Merkel's popularity ratings have dropped dramatically since her general election victory in 2009. A German research group, the Forsa institute, suggests that 80 per cent of voters feel her decisions are taken for political rather than principled reasons.This loss of belief in her sincerity is a serious issue for Dr Merkel, who has ridden high on voter faith in her strength and leadership on the international stage, as well as at home.Dr Merkel will be able to govern until 2013 even if her party loses all the regional elections until then, but the effect of the loss of authority on the coalition in power, according to analysts, will make it difficult to maintain political momentum.Dr Merkel and her coalition have been severely criticised particularly over the past two weeks after the decision to abstain from the vote on the Libyan operation at the UN Security Council.Joschka Fischer, a former Greens foreign minister, has said that he was "ashamed" of Germany's stance at the UN.Writing in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, he described Germany's abstention as "scandalous", adding that Germany's politics were becoming ever more "provincial" in a clear reference to the view that the government's decisions had been coloured by the weekend's regional elections.- In the last national vote before the French presidential elections next year, the opposition Socialist Party received the most votes in local elections, with the party of President Nicolas Sarkozy a distant second, Bloomberg reports.
© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald