Anti-nuclear sentiment that’s sweeped across Germany since the Japanese catastrophe has lifted the Green Party into power in the state of Baden-Württemberg.
This is the first time the Greens will run a German state.
Almost half the voters said energy was the most important election issue.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, lost power after occupying office for 58 years.
Stefan Mappus, who, until now, was the state’s conservative premier, probably would have kept his position if he weren’t a leading nuclear advocate. The state has low unemployment and strong economic growth.
Winfried Kretschmann takes over as premier. He’s known as a pragmatist well suited to the state’s conservative temperament. A former science teacher, he says he cares as much about fiscal discipline as he does about renewable energy.
He now has a chance to prove to Germany that a green economy doesn’t mean an end to growth, innovation and employment.
Read the Economist article:
Loading...
The analysis of the reasons for Kretschmann’s success is not entirely correct. Of course the compex of nuclear energy was an important brick in the election campaign but especially in Baden-Wurttemberg there was another issue that was important to the voters. The matter of “Stuttgart 21” the planned underground central train station made many non-voters go to the ballots this time – and most of those voted for the Greens as an analysis by one of the public TV stations showed.