This has got to hurt.

From the Baden-Württemberg official website:

27.03.2011 Rund 7,8 Millionen Bürgerinnen und Bürger waren am Sonntag in Baden-Württemberg zur Wahl eines neuen Landtags aufgerufen. Nach dem vorläufigen amtlichen Endergebnis kam die CDU auf 39,0 Prozent (60 Sitze im Landtag), die Grünen erzielten 24,2 Prozent (36 Sitze), die SPD 23,1 Prozent (35 Sitze) und die FDP 5,3 Prozent (7 Sitze). Die Wahlbeteiligung lag bei 66,2 Prozent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the head of the CDU [Christian Democratic Union], and her party has held power in the state of Baden-Württemberg since 1953. There are many well-known companies located in the state [Daimler AG, Porsche, Robert Bosch GmbH, Carl Zeiss AG, and SAP AG], and it normally has the lowest unemployment rate in Germany.

The control was so thorough that the state’s flag is black and yellow, the colors of the CDU and the FDP [Free Democratic Party], who partnered when the CDU came up a bit short in an election. I doubt they’ll be nasty enough to change the flag to green and red, the colors of the Green Party and the SPD [Social Democratic Party] who will now govern.

Merkel got in trouble by extending the lives of old nuclear plants, just before the Japanese earthquake, bad mouthing bailouts and then backing them, not backing punitive measures against Libya, and trying to mess with the Stuttgart train station over the objections of the citizens of Stuttgart. [She has been branded a “flip-flopper”, in American political terms.]

The CDU is still the largest party in the landtag [state legislature] with 60 seats [down 9], but even with the 7 seats of the FDP, they can’t form a majority, so the Greens with 36 seats will form a coalition with the SPD providing 35 seats.

Update: Some clarification on Libya – I don’t think Germans wanted the Luftwaffe to be sent to Libya, but they objected to the way Merkel opposed the entire mission. Many Germans remember what happened in Hungary and Czechoslovakia when the Soviets sent in the tanks – nothing. People wanted the West to do something to help, but nothing was done. There are a lot of Germans who think something should be done in such cases, and that number includes Merkel’s own Foreign Ministry.

The BBC says that TEPCO admits a mistake:

The operators of a stricken Japanese nuclear plant have apologised for a “mistake” in reporting a radiation spike 10 million times above normal.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, which has previously been criticised by officials for its handling of the crisis at the plant, said it got the readings wrong.

Despite the mistake, the radiation spike at reactor 2 was still very high and enough to evacuate workers.
…

A spokesman for Japan’s nuclear watchdog, Hidehiko Nishiyama, said the level of radiation in puddles near reactor 2 was confirmed at 1,000 millisieverts an hour.

“It is an extremely high figure,” Mr Nishiyama said.

The radiation levels are so high, that emergency workers near the contaminated water would have received four times their maximum annual dose of radiation in just one hour.
…

Earlier, Japan’s nuclear agency said that levels of radioactive iodine in the sea near the plant had risen to 1,850 times the usual level.
…

However, the government in Tokyo has said that airborne radiation around the plant is decreasing, so there is no need to extend the evacuation zone.

Apparently someone panicked having seen the reading on the radiation detector and garbled the number. The revised number is still in the “fatal” range.

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