Fears over the Japan nuclear crisis triggered a crushing defeat for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in their heartland on Sunday, as the ecologist Greens roared to an historic triumph.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) have ruled wealthy Baden-Wuerttemberg, home to industrial giants Daimler and Bosch, for 58 years, but her on-again, off-again support for nuclear power spooked voters ahead of the crucial poll.
The anti-nuclear Greens won a record 24 percent of the vote — more than 12 points higher than in 2006 — and were likely for the first time to lead a coalition with the Social Democrats, who garnered about 23 percent.
The opposition edged out Merkel’s party and the Free Democrats (FDP), their junior partners in the state and at the national level, who claimed a dismal 44 percent between them.
Forty-five percent of voters called nuclear power a key issue in light of the disaster in Japan and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, the FDP leader, pledged another rethink in Berlin.
“The dreadful events in Japan, the nuclear accident in Fukushima and the consequences for us in Germany: These were the most decisive topics in this state election,” Westerwelle said. “It was a referendum on the future of atomic energy.”
“Today the final decision on the end of nuclear power in Germany was made,” Social Democrats leader Sigmar Gabriel said.
Green candidate Winfried Kretschmann, 62, who is expected to become the party’s first state leader in Germany after campaigning hard on the nuclear issue, claimed an “historic victory.”
“It’s a dream come true … We could never have dreamed of a result like this a few days ago,” added Franz Untersteller, a Greens spokesman.
The result in the state bordering France and Switzerland marked a debacle for Merkel, 56, after drubbings in North Rhine-Westphalia in May and Hamburg last month.
Calling Japan’s emergency a “turning point,” Merkel suspended for three months an earlier decision to extend the lifetime of Germany’s nuclear reactors, four of which are based in Baden-Wuerttemberg.
She also temporarily shut off the country’s seven oldest reactors pending a safety review.
Nuclear power is unpopular in Germany, but polls indicated that voters saw Merkel’s zigzagging as an electoral ploy.
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
RSS