[GPSCC-chat] Fwd: USGP-INT Greens in Germany mount huge anti-nuke protest

Fri Sep 10 12:25:19 PDT 2010

  Here is something worth posting.

Fred D.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	USGP-INT Greens in Germany mount huge anti-nuke protest
Date: 	Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:03:42 -0400
From: 	Julia Willebrand <julia.willebrand at verizon.net>
To: 	usgp-int at gp-us.org

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html 

    *
          o
                +

  Merkel Faces `New Dimension' of Anti-Nuclear Protests, Green Leader Says

By Patrick Donahue - Sep 10, 2010 4:22 AM ET

German Chancellor Angela Merkel 
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Angela%20Merkel&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1&partialfields=-wnnis:NOAVSYND&lr=-lang_ja> 
faces “massive” public protests this fall as demonstrators attempt to 
derail her plan to prolong the use of nuclear power, the co-leader of 
the Green Party said.

A movement that includes clean-energy businesses, doctors and students 
is preparing to confront Merkel over the planned extension of the 
running time of nuclear plants by an average of 12 years, Claudia Roth 
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Claudia%20Roth&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1&partialfields=-wnnis:NOAVSYND&lr=-lang_ja>, 
co-chairwoman of the Greens, said in an interview yesterday. While the 
movement has echoes of the 1970s and 1980s rallies that gave rise to the 
Green Party, Merkel has awakened a “new dimension” of opposition, Roth 
said.

“I can guarantee that this government has never experienced protests 
along the lines of what’s coming,” Roth said in a phone interview from a 
party convention in the western city of Mainz. “They won’t be able to 
ignore it.”

Germany’s opposition groups are stepping up their campaign against 
nuclear power as Merkel seeks to steer the bill granting the extension 
through parliament. Her Cabinet is set to ratify the energy plan on 
Sept. 28. While she can rely on her majority to push the plan through 
the lower house, legal opinion is divided on whether Merkel can bypass 
the upper chamber, the Bundesrat, where her bloc is outnumbered by the 
opposition.

Opposition Social Democrats have threatened legal challenges if she 
attempts to circumvent the Bundesrat.

Merkel’s popularity has sagged since her re-election a year ago. The 
ruling coalition dropped one percentage point to 36 percent support in a 
Forsa poll 
<http://www.presseportal.de/pm/6329/1677878/gruner_jahr_stern> on Sept. 
8, more than 12 points below its result in last year’s vote.

Greens Gain

The Greens gained two points to 21 percent, the party’s highest poll 
rating ever. It was the Greens, then led by Joschka Fischer 
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Joschka%20Fischer&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1&partialfields=-wnnis:NOAVSYND&lr=-lang_ja>, 
who helped author the phase-out of nuclear energy by about 2022 in a 
coalition with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder 
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Gerhard%20Schroeder&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1&partialfields=-wnnis:NOAVSYND&lr=-lang_ja>’s 
Social Democrats in 2002.

“The government is suffering not only on the nuclear issue, but also in 
other political areas,” said Hans-Juergen Hoffmann 
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Hans-Juergen%20Hoffmann&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1&partialfields=-wnnis:NOAVSYND&lr=-lang_ja>, 
head of Berlin-based pollster Psephos. With Merkel set overhaul 
health-care and cut spending on defense while facing further 
repercussions from Europe’s debt crisis, the risk to her government “is 
already recognizable in the political atmosphere and what you see in the 
polls.”

A Sept. 18 demonstration, organized by anti-nuclear groups including 
Campact.de <http://www.campact.de/campact/homev>, will feature a march 
by tens of thousands of protesters to the Reichstag and a symbolic 
“encircling” of the government quarter in Berlin, Campact director 
Christoph Bautz said by phone. Further “huge protests” are planned in 
Gorleben, a nuclear-waste dump, and Stuttgart, Roth said.

Nuclear Extension

In Merkel’s nuclear plan, she squelched the bickering between her 
Christian Democratic-led bloc and Free Democratic Party coalition 
partners to forge agreement on an extension of the licenses held by 
Germany’s 17 atomic plants. The accord was excoriated by the opposition 
and activists as a giveaway to industry and harmful to the environment.

E.ON AG and RWE AG, Germany’s two biggest utilities, rallied in 
Frankfurt trading after the deal was announced. The companies have still 
tumbled more than 20 percent since the start of the year, making them 
among the benchmark DAX Index’s three biggest losers 
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=DAX:IND>.

Merkel spent this week defending the deal negotiated with the four main 
energy producers: E.ON, RWE, EnBW Energie Baden- Wuerttemberg AG and 
Vattenfall AB. More than half of the profit from extending plant running 
times will be put into renewable- energy development and the budget, 
Merkel said on Sept. 7.

The government’s plan is a betrayal of Germany’s “consensus” to exit 
nuclear energy, said Roth. That has bolstered the current protests 
beyond the traditional activist base to reach different age groups, 
church bodies and small businesses specialized in renewable-energy 
technologies who see their livelihoods at risk.

“The protests are much broader now -- they include a lot of young people 
who now know that nuclear power doesn’t create jobs, but eliminates jobs 
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=GRUEPR:IND>,” Roth said. 
“It’s not just the old fighters who are out there protesting, but a lot 
of young people as well. Old and new movements have come together.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue 
<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Patrick%20Donahue&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1&partialfields=-wnnis:NOAVSYND&lr=-lang_ja> 
in Berlin at at pdonahue1 at bloomberg.net <mailto:pdonahue1 at bloomberg.net>.

    *

    * Email
      <mailto:?body=Merkel%20Faces%20%60New%20Dimension%27%20of%20Anti-Nuclear%20Protests%2C%20Green%20Leader%20Says%0A%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2F2010-09-10%2Fmerkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html&subject=Bloomberg%20news%3A%20Merkel%20Faces%20%60New%20Dimension%27%20of%20Anti-Nuclear%20Protests%2C%20Green%20Leader%20Says>

    * Share <http://www.bloomberg.com/share>
          o Business Exchange
            <http://bx.businessweek.com/api/add-article-to-bx.tn?url=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html>
          o Twitter
            <http://twitter.com/home?status=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html>
          o Delicious
            <http://del.icio.us/post?v=2&url=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html&title=Merkel%20Faces%20%60New%20Dimension%27%20of%20Anti-Nuclear%20Protests%2C%20Green%20Leader%20Says&bodytext=German%20Chancellor%20%20Angela%20Merkel%20%0Afaces%20%E2%80%9Cmassive%E2%80%9D%20public%20protests%20this%20fall%20as%20demonstrators%0Aattempt%20to%20derail%20her%20plan%20to%20prolong%20the%20use%20of%20nuclear%20power%2C%0Athe%20co-leader%20of%20the%20Green%20Party%20said.&tags=news>
          o Digg
            <http://digg.com/submit?url=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html&title=Merkel%20Faces%20%60New%20Dimension%27%20of%20Anti-Nuclear%20Protests%2C%20Green%20Leader%20Says&bodytext=German%20Chancellor%20%20Angela%20Merkel%20%0Afaces%20%E2%80%9Cmassive%E2%80%9D%20public%20protests%20this%20fall%20as%20demonstrators%0Aattempt%20to%20derail%20her%20plan%20to%20prolong%20the%20use%20of%20nuclear%20power%2C%0Athe%20co-leader%20of%20the%20Green%20Party%20said.&topic=business_finance>
          o Facebook
            <http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html&t=Merkel%20Faces%20%60New%20Dimension%27%20of%20Anti-Nuclear%20Protests%2C%20Green%20Leader%20Says>
          o LinkedIn
            <http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html&title=Merkel%20Faces%20%60New%20Dimension%27%20of%20Anti-Nuclear%20Protests%2C%20Green%20Leader%20Says&summary=German%20Chancellor%20%20Angela%20Merkel%20%0Afaces%20%E2%80%9Cmassive%E2%80%9D%20public%20protests%20this%20fall%20as%20demonstrators%0Aattempt%20to%20derail%20her%20plan%20to%20prolong%20the%20use%20of%20nuclear%20power%2C%0Athe%20co-leader%20of%20the%20Green%20Party%20said.&source=Bloomberg.com>
          o Newsvine
            <http://www.newsvine.com/_wine/save?popoff=1&h=Merkel%20Faces%20%60New%20Dimension%27%20of%20Anti-Nuclear%20Protests%2C%20Green%20Leader%20Says&t=world-news&u=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html&e=>
          o Propeller
            <http://www.propeller.com/submit/?T=Merkel%20Faces%20%60New%20Dimension%27%20of%20Anti-Nuclear%20Protests%2C%20Green%20Leader%20Says&U=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html&D=German%20Chancellor%20%20Angela%20Merkel%20%0Afaces%20%E2%80%9Cmassive%E2%80%9D%20public%20protests%20this%20fall%20as%20demonstrators%0Aattempt%20to%20derail%20her%20plan%20to%20prolong%20the%20use%20of%20nuclear%20power%2C%0Athe%20co-leader%20of%20the%20Green%20Party%20said.&tag=news>
          o Yahoo! Buzz
            <http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzz?targetUrl=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html&headline=Merkel%20Faces%20%60New%20Dimension%27%20of%20Anti-Nuclear%20Protests%2C%20Green%20Leader%20Says&summary=German%20Chancellor%20%20Angela%20Merkel%20%0Afaces%20%E2%80%9Cmassive%E2%80%9D%20public%20protests%20this%20fall%20as%20demonstrators%0Aattempt%20to%20derail%20her%20plan%20to%20prolong%20the%20use%20of%20nuclear%20power%2C%0Athe%20co-leader%20of%20the%20Green%20Party%20said.&tags=news>
    * Print
      <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-09-10/merkel-faces-new-dimension-of-anti-nuclear-protests-green-leader-says.html>

        Related News

    * Germany <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/germany/>  ·
    * Europe <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/europe/>

      <http://www.bloomberg.com/popular/>

Julia Willebrand, Ed.D
GPNY
212 877-5088

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cagreens.org/pipermail/sosfbay-discuss_lists.cagreens.org/attachments/20100910/b0c75ea3/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed...
Name: Attached Message Part
URL: <http://lists.cagreens.org/pipermail/sosfbay-discuss_lists.cagreens.org/attachments/20100910/b0c75ea3/attachment.ksh>