Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Germany, the vote buries the future of nuclear energy

In the end the polls proved correct, even the exit polls, there had been no overvaluation of the Greens, as sometimes happened. In Baden-Württemberg, for the first time in German history, the Minister-President, Prime Minister of the Land will be a member of the party Grünen, in alliance with the SPD.

In Rheinland-Pfalz Social Democrat Prime Minister Beck resist, despite losing his party ten points, but still govern in alliance with the Greens in 2006 were not even able to overcome the barrier of 5% and this time the big fall in the regional parliament with more than 15. But when it comes to historic turning point in Germany for Baden-Württemberg, historic Democratic stronghold where two new songs are made simultaneously: the opposition CDU and a Green prime minister.

The Grünen had already been successful in small towns and enlightened university, expressing mayors in Heidelberg and Freiburg. This time in Freiburg have exceeded 43%, but grew up all over the Land, and even in the age where they are weakest, the ultra aged over 60, have a combined 15% interest.

In Stuttgart city colleges in 3 out of 4 Greens are the first party. At the regional level, of course, the CDU is the first party with 39%. But the change came because all'inedito 24.2 Green adds 23% of the SPD, while the allies of the Democrats at federal level, the liberal FDP are reduced to a flicker of 5.3.

Compared to previous regional, but also from previous policy, all parties have lost votes in favor of Grünen, which represents an increase of 12.5 redoubling their votes. The Linke, the new radical Left by Oskar Lafontaine, he loses votes in favor of the avalanche green. The pleas of these electoral trends there is no doubt.

It is not a simple matter of political line, the Greens also advance to the Frankfurt's city where I come in with a CDU mayor. Especially in Baden-Württemberg, the issues of energy and infrastructure dominated the electoral confrontation. But they dominated down. This rich and populous stronghold southwest of Germany was an industrial outpost of nuclear power plants and now is ready - or preparing - to be in the high-speed rail project with Stuttgart on 21 and subsequent rebuilding of the underground station.

Prime Minister Mappus Democrat in office until recently, thought to embody the modernist dream of industrial Stuttgart when he asked the federal government to "get out of the output of the atom," and to revive the central as well as when he defended the project Stuttgart 21 protesters from the defenders of the city park that the work should break down.

Mappus had not realized how much the wind had changed. A red-green victory in the polls already loomed last fall, when thousands of people in the square in Stuttgart challenged the start of work on the High Speed Railway, Stuttgart 21. The concerns follow the nuclear incident in Japan did the rest.

Without even a special effort from the Greens, who still chose to be represented by a character physically calm and rational as Winfried Kretschmann. He has 62 years, white hair, always wears a tie, he taught chemistry in high school. He picked up a tension that is very anti-nuclear high throughout the country, with frequent demonstrations and the government completely on the defensive.

Now Merkel, after just a few months ago his government wiped out the end of 2020 for the closure of power stations in Germany, says that the exit from nuclear power is the goal to be achieved. While today's vote buries the future of nuclear energy in Germany, although still not known how and by what steps the government negotiated the first green-red (the others were red-green ..) promises to be anything but that easy.

The difficulty is in the story Stuttgart 21. There are the protesters who greeted the election results with those fireworks and a bit 'most ardent of the party that took advantage of nine in the evening of the victory of the red-green coalition to invade a piece of 21 yards in Stuttgart.

The Social Democrats that a few months ago they talked about a possible referendum and decisive decision-making today are reluctant to face the risk of contradicting all past commitments under the powerful leadership of the Federal Railways. But most of all for the Greens step is unavoidable.

Again Sunday evening, while watching the results, the most militant of the anti-Stuttgart 21 hypothesized referendum requests and blocks the work of local funding. Winfried Kretschmann (the serious, some journalists call it) will not fail to disappoint.

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