May 22 elections in the German city-state of Bremen marked yet another disastrous result for the parties of Germany’s ruling coalition, the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the big-business Free Democrats (FDP).
Unsurprisingly, for the traditional working-class stronghold, the centre-left Social-Democratic Party (SPD) won 38.1% ― retaining government of the state in coalition with the Greens.
For the first time in history, the Greens leapfrogged German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU to take second place, winning 23% of the vote – an increase of 6%.
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The CDU received its worst result in years, winning only 21.5% of the vote.
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Their coalition partners, the FDP, suffered an even worse result, with their vote collapsing to only 3%. Having failed to cross the five percent threshold, the FDP lost all of its seats in state parliament.
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The far-left party Die Linke received 6%, down two points from the last election.
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Support for the Greens has been growing across Germany since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Germans are overwhelmingly opposed to nuclear power.
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This election also followed a recent change in electoral laws lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 years ― a first in Germany.Ìý