While authorities in Japan work desperately to prevent a nuclear catastrophe, on the other side of the world in Germany, Angela Merkel is facing the political fallout. With an important election in the southern state of Baden-Wrttemberg being held on March 27, Merkel’s future as Chancellor could be decided at kitchen tables like the one in the modest Stuttgart home of Hanna and Volker Schwerteck. The young middle-class couple has plenty of reasons to back Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union at the polls, but there is one reason why they won’t vote CDU this time: the party’s support for nuclear power.
A doctor on maternity leave from a local hospital, Hanna Schwerteck says she has always opposed nuclear power but refuses to be pigeonholed as a leftist for her environmental views. “We don’t belong to one camp or the other, and I certainly don’t feel disinclined to vote for the CDU,” she says. “But you definitely can’t vote for them now. They have been vehement supporters of nuclear power.”
Voters in an election in the eastern Saxony Anhalt state on Sunday left Merkel’s CDU in power, but also gave the Greens a huge boost — a strong warning ahead of the upcoming elections in Baden-Wrttemberg and Rhineland Palatinate. Defeat for the CDU in Baden-Wrttemberg — a CDU stronghold since 1953 — on March 27 would be a major blow to Merkel’s government and her bid for re-election in 2013. Fearing that public concern about the safety of Germany’s nuclear power stations could turn against her, Merkel on March 15 announced a stunning volte-face of her previous policy, ordering the closure of seven of the country’s oldest nuclear plants for at least three months while the government subjects them to stress tests. And she has begun positioning herself as the advocate of nuclear safety in Europe, announcing on March 19 that she would urge the adoption of uniform nuclear-safety standards at next week’s council of ministers meeting.
Merkel’s decision to shut the nuclear plants is surprising given Germany’s history of political bickering over the future of nuclear power. As the main opposition to the previous government, the CDU supported a plan to phase out nuclear power. Then, last year, Merkel’s coalition government backed out of the deal and instead passed legislation to extend the life of the country’s oldest nuclear plants. Merkel justified the move by calling nuclear power a transitional technology on the way to building up alternative energy sources such as wind and solar. Critics say the government was just supporting the interests of the energy companies.
The premier of Baden-Wrttemberg, Stefan Mappus, has been a staunch advocate of nuclear energy and is keen to keep online two of the state’s power stations that were scheduled to shut down this year. Mappus came under intense pressure last year over protests against the Stuttgart 21 project, a $6 billion plan to put the city’s central train station underground and build a new neighborhood with offices, shops and apartments aboveground. The issue became a national scandal when police attacked a group of protesters — including senior citizens and children.
