Angela Merkel ‘to lose key state election’

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats are set to lose the key state of Baden-Wuerttemberg after six decades, exit polls suggest.The polls put the Greens and Social Democrats at a combined 48.5%, with Mrs Merkel’s party and its Free Democrat (FDP) allies at 43%.Nuclear power, following the accident in Japan, was a key issue.The vote in the wealthy south-western state was seen as a referendum on Mrs Merkel’s rule.The region, around Stuttgart, has a population of some 11 million and has been ruled by the Christian Democrats since 1953.If the Greens do go into coalition with the Social Democrats, it will be the first time they have held power in a state.

Green party spokesman Franz Untersteller said: “It’s a dream come true… we could never have dreamed of a result like this a few days ago.”

Education Minister Annette Schavan, a Christian Democrat leader in Baden-Wuerttemberg, said: “It’s very painful.”
Rhineland-Palatinate

Polling stations closed in Baden-Wuerttemberg at 1600 GMT in an election where the opposition was energised by the nuclear crisis following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 11 March.
Angela Merkel in Brussels, 25 March Mrs Merkel now has a coalition torn by factions

On Saturday, tens of thousands of Germans took part in what were thought to be the country’s biggest-ever protests against nuclear power.

Mrs Merkel had tried to ease concerns by suspending for three months a decision to extend the lifetime of Germany’s nuclear reactors. Four are based in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Another key issue was the plan for a big railway project that could transform the centre of Stuttgart.

The BBC’s Stephen Evans in Berlin says Mrs Merkel had been accused of bending with the wind on other issues – such as talking tough on eurozone bailouts and then accepting a new mechanism offering precisely that provision.

Baden-Wuerttemberg has done well economically but, our correspondent says, that prosperity did not turn into gratitude for the chancellor.

He says the chancellor now faces a coalition torn by factions – on the nuclear issue, the eurozone and immigration.

Mrs Merkel had already suffered damaging defeats in North Rhine-Westphalia last May and in Hamburg in February.

In another state election on Sunday, in Rhineland-Palatinate, exit polls suggested another huge boost for the Greens.

They were reported to have trebled their vote to 17%, meaning that the Social Democrats, who were set to fall 10 percentage points to 35.5%, would need them for a coalition.

The Christian Democrats rose 1.2 points to 34%, the polls suggested.

The FDP, led by Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, looked set to fall below the 5% needed to gain any representation in the state.

The FDP’s Rainer Bruedele, the economy minister, said it was a “bitter defeat”.