MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fukushima thrashes Merkel; German Greens to appoint their first state premier ever

A historical electoral win for Green leader Winfried Kretschmann

The Fukushima syndrome hit hard in Germany for Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition that suffered bruising losses in two state legislative elections Sunday, losing control of the main prize, Baden-Wuerttemberg state.

In the large and rich south-western state, Merkel's Christian Democrats ended a 58-year winning streak, gaining only 39% of the ballots in a five-percentage-point loss of vote share.

The Green Party was expected to nominate its first state premier in German history. The environmentalists were expected to win about 24%, enough to rule Baden-Wuerttemberg in a coalition with the Social Democrats, who won 23%.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle's Free Democratic Party (FDP) sagged to about 5%, leaving it uncertain if the FDP would even win representation. German electoral law denies legislative seats to parties winning less than five percent of the overall vote.

'It's an historic electoral win,' Winfried Kretschmann, the state Green leader, told cheering, chanting supporters. 'After the polarization of this election campaign, we'll try to unify people ...and lead them in the Green direction.'

In the smaller state of Rhineland Palatinate, voters mainly punished the smaller party in the Merkel coalition, Westerwelle's FDP, which obtained just 4% of the vote, well down from the 15% it won nationally in the 2009 German general election. The CDU vote share in that state was stable at 34%.

The incumbent Social Democrats won only 35% of the vote, a slump of 10 percentage points compared to five years ago but is expected to rule in coalition with the high-riding Greens who quadrupled their support to 17% of state votes.

The surge in Green support in both states which hold one sixth of the German population was attributed to both local conservation issues and the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster as news from Japan has galvanized German attention over the past two weeks.

'I believe the events in Japan stirred everything up here,' said Peter Altmaier, the CDU whip in the federal parliament. A majority of Germans hope for an early closedown of Germany's 17 nuclear power sites, surveys have showed.

The collapse in FDP support reflects the sharp decline in the pro-business party's standing which set in a year ago. Westerwelle has faced low popularity ratings and negative media coverage almost since he entered the Merkel cabinet in late 2009.

The government losses give the opposition even greater control of the Bundesrat, the upper chamber of the German federal parliament, making it harder than ever for Merkel to push through legislation.