By DPA,
Berlin : Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition suffered bruising losses in two state legislative elections in Germany Sunday, losing control of the main prize, Baden-Wuerttemberg state, projections showed.
In that large and rich south-western state, Merkel’s Christian Democrats ended a 58-year winning streak, gaining only 39 percent 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 percent, enough to rule Baden-Wuerttemberg in a coalition with the Social Democrats, who won 23 percent.
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle’s Free Democratic Party (FDP) sagged to about five percent, 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 per cent of the vote, well down from the 15 percent it won nationally in the 2009 German general election.
The CDU vote share in that state was stable at 34 percent.
The incumbent Social Democrats won only 35 per cent of the vote, a slump of 10 percentage points compared to five years ago, but are expected to rule in coalition with the high-riding Greens who quadrupled their support to 17 percent of state votes.
The surge in Green support in both states 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.
One-sixth of Germans live in the two states that voted Sunday.