Merkel’s Party Stumbles, Greens Soar as Atomic Fears Surface
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Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party dropped votes and the Greens doubled their support in the first electoral test of Germany’s response to Japan’s atomic crisis and refusal to join military attacks on Libya.
The results of yesterday’s election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, the second of seven regional ballots this year, may be a foretaste of what’s to come for Merkel, said Hans-Juergen Hoffmann, head of polling company Psephos. Next up are two elections on March 27 in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg, where her Christian Democratic Union is struggling to retain a near-six-decade hold on power.