Partijen Merkel en Sarkozy verliezen bij lokale verkiezingen op thema kernenergie (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - German chancellor Angela Merkel i's Christian Democrat party (CDU) has suffered a bitter defeat in the key state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, ceding control to the anti-nuclear Green party, preliminary results suggest.

The outcome of Sunday's (27 March) election is seen as an important setback for Merkel, whose attempts to stop political contamination from Japan's nuclear accident appear to have failed.

Directly after news of damage to Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor emerged, the chancellor temporarily suspended production at seven of Germany's oldest reactors. The move was seen by a generally nuclear-sceptic public as electioneering.

CDU's share of the vote slumped from 44.2 percent in the 2006 state election to 39 percent, according to official figures. The Christian Democrats have held power in the state for almost six decades. The outgoing governor, Stefan Mappus, was a strong advocate of nuclear energy.

The Green party more than doubled their vote to 24.2 percent, allowing them to capture the state's presidency when combined with Social Democrat allies who garnered 23.1 percent.

"This is a day that has strongly changed the political landscape in Germany," Green party chairwoman Claudia Roth said in Berlin.

The Baden-Wuerttemberg loss will make it harder to Merkel to win support for legislation in Germany's upper chamber, the Bundesrat, although analysts say there is no clear challenger to take over her job from within her party.

Sunday's vote in the wealthy south-western state of 11 million people followed demonstrations in various German cities over the weekend, with roughly 200,000 people calling for the permanent closure of the country's 17 nuclear plants.

Germany's Green party also did well in concurrent elections in the Rhineland-Palatinate state, where the ruling Social Democrats may now need them as coalition partners.

The country's Liberal party (FDP) led by foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, CDU coalition partners, were the seen as the weekend's big losers in both polls.

EU leaders on Friday agreed to stress test the bloc's 140-plus nuclear plants, but despite moves in Germany many countries including France and the Czech Republic have shown little appetite for a reduction in their nuclear energy use.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy i's centre-right UMP party also suffered considerable losses during the second round of French local elections over the weekend, the last direct voting before presidential elections next May.

The far-right Front National fared less well than in first-round voting, but still garnered around 10 percent of the vote.

Opposition Socialists emerged as the main winners of the local elections, securing roughly 35 percent of the vote.