The Rise of Germany's Green Party

[marmar]

from Der Spiegel:




It is being hailed as the start of a new political era in Germany. The Green Party looks set to appoint its first state governor after Sunday's election in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The result is a huge setback for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Fukushima disaster has had, and will have, many consequences around the world. One of the more unlikely, however, appears to be the results of Sunday's election in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, where skepticism about nuclear power helped propel the Green Party to a historic victory over Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The Greens doubled their share of the vote to 24.2 percent, according to preliminary results released by the state electoral commission. They are now likely to govern the state in a coalition with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which secured 23.1 percent of the vote, down 2 percent from the last election in 2006. In what would be a first for Germany, the Greens, as the senior partner in the coalition, will likely appoint the state governor.

The Green's leading candidate, Winfried Kretschmann, talked of a "historic electoral victory," while national Green Party co-leader Claudia Roth described the result as "the start of a new political era." .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,753503,00.html

[Blue_Tires]

1. From Deutsche Welle:

Greens force historic change of power in German state elections

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14943224,00.html

[malaise]

2. Huge victory

CDU controlled that region for over 60 years

[Shagbark Hickory]

3. Yeah but lets see what they can actually get done while in office.

If its anything like America, they'll really be on one of two sides and the corporate and political influence will prevent them from really adhering to the green party platform.