Japan, Libya Crises Contribute to Crushing Election Defeat for Angela Merkel
Posted: March 27, 2011 Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Germany, Libya, U.S. Military | Tags: Angela Merkel, earthquake, Fukushima nuclear plant, Germany, Japan, Libya, nuclear disaster, radiation, Tokyo Electric Power Co., tsunami 13 Comments
Angela Merkel
From NPR: Merkel Suffers Historic Defeat In German State
German chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have suffered a historic defeat in a state ballot after almost six decades in power there, partial results showed Sunday, in an election that amounted to a referendum on the party’s stance on nuclear power.
The opposition anti-nuclear Greens doubled their voter share in Baden-Wuerttemberg state and seemed poised to win their first-ever state governorship, according to calculations based on partial results published by public broadcaster ARD….
The Greens secured 24 percent of the vote, with the center-left Social Democrats down 2 percentage points at 23.2 percent, giving them enough form a coalition government in the state, the results showed.
Representatives of all parties said the elections were overshadowed by Japan’s nuclear crisis, turning them into a popular vote on the country’s future use of nuclear power, which a majority of Germans oppose as they view it as inherently dangerous.
Although overseeing a surging economy and falling unemployment, Mrs Merkel attracted withering criticism after she decided to reverse an unpopular decision taken last autumn to extend the lifespans of Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors.
Critics condemned the abrupt u-turn, and the decision to shut down seven of the oldest reactors pending a safety review, as blatant electioneering, claiming that Mrs Merkel hoped to capitalise from rising opposition to nuclear energy in Germany following the disaster engulfing the Fukushima reactors in Japan.
Libya was also an issue for voters:
the government’s refusal to support military intervention in Libya added to Mrs Merkel’s woes.
In comments echoing conservative disquiet with the decision Joschka Fischer, a former foreign minister, said Germany had lost “credibility” on the world stage and had blown its chances of getting a seat at the UN Security Council.
It’s interesting that many Germans apparently wanted to help the Libyan rebels, while so many “progressives” in the U.S. opposed the UN/NATO intervention because Libya is not of much strategic importance to the U.S. and because of the cost.
Germans saw Merkel’s unwillingness to support the intervention in Libya as an embarrassment that could prevent Germany from getting a seat on the UN Security Council.
Here in the U.S., progressives (IMO) missed the importance of the U.S. President making a decision that concurred with the wishes of most of the Arab world–might that not be a better use of our military resources than endlessly pouring them into Afghanistan and Iraq. Just my 2 cents…
Just a couple of quick updates–
Libyan rebels are marching toward Tripoli
The last time the rebels made it as far west as Bin Jawad, it ended in disaster: their fighters ran into a murderous ambush, lost 70 men, and were forced into a terrifying retreat that nearly ended their campaign.
But yesterday, after a stunning sweep across the territory for which they have fought so hard and for so long, they were back.
This time, with Western air power destroying almost all that is left of the regime’s armour and artillery, the mood was very different. The rebels’ eyes were cast towards Sirte, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s birthplace and the centre of loyalist resistance.
[….]
The shift in momentum is palpable. Rebels are now back in possession of the two key oil complexes of Ras Lanuf and Brega which handle a sizeable proportion of the 1.5 million barrels a day the country used to export before the uprising. The opposition’s provisional administration in Benghazi stated that Qatar, which had joined the Western coalition in sending warplanes to Libya, would be marketing the oil. However, restarting production will be extremely difficult until the return of the foreigners who ran the plants, but left after the uprising.
In Japan, a 6.5 magnitude aftershock triggered a new tsunami warning, and workers have again left the Fukushima nuclear plant because of dangerously high radiation levels. From the Independent:
It [earthquake and tsunami alert] came after emergency workers fled from one of Fukushima’s stricken nuclear reactors yesterday, after contaminated water in the cooling system was apparently found to be 10 million times more radioactive than normal, only for officials to later say that the reading might have been inaccurate.
The latest confusion in the battle to bring Japan’s nuclear crisis under control came as villagers near the plant complained that they were being kept in the dark over radiation risks.
The technician who took the reading at reactor No 2 yesterday was so alarmed by the numbers that the team fled the building before taking a second measurement. And later, a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of the Fukushima plant, said: “There is a suspicion that the reading … is too high, so we are redoing our tests… We are very sorry for the inconvenience.”
Highly radioactive pools of water have formed inside all four of the damaged reactors, officials said. After previously downplaying fears of a serious breach in any of the reactors, Yukio Edano, the cabinet secretary and the face of the government throughout the crisis, said it “almost certainly” had happened.
The world is changing very rapidly, despite our government’s attempts to maintain the status quo. I wonder what dramatic news awaits us tomorrow?
peej
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Thanks for the updates BB…that is very interesting about the German support for intervention in Libya.
There are rumors about the status of Gaddafi tonight, but no one has confirmed if they are true.
Tainted water at two reactorsIncreases Alarm for Japanese
This is sounding more and more like the BP mess, only with nukes.
When the whole MENA is on fire, the Libya little adventure will be seen as a bad decision, made in haste, and without fully understanding the implications. Germany got it right, and France and Obama/Hillary got it wrong. Obama should have listened to Gates and stayed away from Libya.
NYT: Unrest in Syria and Jordan Poses New Test for U.S. Policy
URGENT: Radioactive water at No. 2 reactor due to partial meltdown: Edano | Kyodo News
A temporary meltdown, I thought once the core begins to meltdown you can’t stop it…
The Libya “crisis” is a war, but I think there will be a crisis when the two factions continue fighting because those who support Gaddafi, and their numbers are significant, will reject a government imposed on them by outside forces.
Btw, I find the Merkel defeat to be spin. Sarkozy is also expected to suffer defeat at the polls. Merkel had elections loses last May and last February before Libya and Japan.
France’s Sarkozy poised for setback in local elections despite renewed global stature
“Here in the U.S., progressives (IMO) missed the importance of the U.S. President making a decision that concurred with the wishes of most of the Arab world–might that not be a better use of our military resources than endlessly pouring them into Afghanistan and Iraq. Just my 2 cents…”
Sometimes you have to clean your room before you get to go outside and play.
It may be that progressives are recognizing that 0bama doesn’t seem to know how to end wars, just start them. The Germans had 0 wars on their plate, before Libya, while the US is already being drained by 2 wars that 0bama campaigned against in 2008.
This is a President who claims there’s a need for an austerity budget. It may be that progressives/Americans would like to see the US maintain a 2-war maximum, and possibly even, devote the money for a 3rd war to humanitarian causes at home, such as not cutting $758 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
Too bad the Nobel Peace Prize-winning President seems more interested in funding foreign wars and a police state at home than in stopping the Republican assault on the well-being of ordinary Americans.
Frankly, my use of “progressives” was intended as sarcasm. “Progressives” are the ones who elected Obama in the first place, and most of them don’t seem very concerned with humanitarian goals, as far as I can tell.
Obama did not campaign against the war in Afghanistan. He called it a necessary war and send strong signals that he would expand it.
There were also plenty of warning signs that Obama would be Bush III. I blame the “progressives” for forcing him down our throats in the primaries.
There were no revolutionary groups in Iraq and Afghanistan asking us to intervene in their countries….etc. Very little in common with what is happening in Libya.
I don’t like spending money in foreign wars, and I think Obama’s “austerity” talk is ignorant nonsense. If you don’t want an inexperienced, conservative, authoritarian president, don’t vote for an inexperienced, conservative, authoritarian candidate. That’s my message to the “progressives.”
The damage is done now, and the U.S. may never recover from what the “progressives” did to us. All we can do now is hope for some crumbs of humanity to sneak through the overwhelming focus on helping the rich and screwing the rest of us.
I also strongly object to “going outside to play” being used to describe an effort to prevent hundreds of thousands of people from being massacred.
Quote from Hillary Clinton 2007 (see Wonk’s post above”
That’s her analogy to the mission in Libya. I’ll stand with Hillary on this one.
Furthermore, “progressives” don’t do their research, so I don’t think they are worth listening to.
I’ll stick with being a liberal, thank you very much.
I support halting genocide of people, don’t care where they are from. As always there is political action, and military solutions to end the tortuous conflicts and the atrocities. Hillary, is giving it her best.
But she doesn’t make the final decisions. Yes, it cost us dearly, and yes civilians will become victims, and they to will suffer as innocent people offen do in WAR.
What I can only hope for is respect for the women who are speaking out, & help for those who are and will continue to be violated by the men of the Middle East. They are the ones who are paying dearly and need protections.