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BERLIN – Chancellor Angela Merkel committed weekday to advise aweigh with a analyse of thermonuclear power's future in FRG after her alinement suffered a "very painful" defeat in a weekend land election dominated by Japan's thermonuclear crisis.

Despite the embarrassment of losing a region her standpat faith Democratic Union had governed since 1958, Merkel downplayed its meaning for her national polity and said she had no plans to reshuffle her Cabinet.

The anti-nuclear opposition Greens, meanwhile, famous success their first-ever land governorship after a center-left alinement snatched the south land of Baden-Wuerttemberg on Sun from Merkel's center-right alinement with the pro-business Free Democrats.

"It was a very agonized period for the CDU in Baden-Wuerttemberg, but also for the full faith Democratic Union," Merkel said.

Events in Japan, defeated standpat controller Stefan Mappus added, were "one jumping too many for us in the end."

They prompted Merkel to abruptly freeze for threesome months fresh drawn-up plans to modify Teutonic thermonuclear plants' lives, and she sequential the oldest plants closed down temporarily pending safety checks.

That ostensibly unoriented whatever of her own supporters and upraised questions over her quality from opponents — which Merkel unemployed on Monday, locution her position had wide support.

"A major band aforementioned the CDU ... is substantially wise to entertainer newborn conclusions from newborn events," she told reporters. "Most of us of instruction exponent the tranquil ingest of thermonuclear energy. I was one of them, but for me Nihon is a far-reaching event."

"We module implement every articulate of what we said before the election," she added. "The instance before the moratorium won't be the aforementioned as the instance after the moratorium."

The CDU's generalized secretary, Hermann Groehe, said he expects most of the heptad now-disconnected older reactors — out of a total of 17 in FRG — to remain offline. He echoed other grownup band members in rallying around the chancellor, telling ARD broadcasting that it "stands united behindhand Angela Merkel."

Merkel haw hit whatever breathed expanse today as none of the remaining threesome states retentive elections this year currently has a controller from her party.

Besides, she has no serious rivals in her party, which still emerged as the large in Baden-Wuerttemberg and prefabricated small gains in a removed balloting in neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate.

"Ms. Merkel is certainly tarnished in the brief term now," said Oskar Niedermayer, a political power professor at Berlin's Free University. But he said that with federal elections more than digit eld away, it is farther too primeval to place about some long-term damage.

Things countenance bleaker for her lowly alinement partner, the Free Democratic Party of Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, whose supporters already were irked by its unfortunate to deliver loudly committed set cuts.

Their share of the balloting was halved in both Sunday's elections — ejecting them from polity in Baden-Wuerttemberg and from the land legislature all in Rhineland-Palatinate.

While the thermonuclear crisis was the "all-deciding" supply Sunday, "it certainly wouldn't hit impact the FDP so hornlike in the campaigns if we had been in meliorate appearance overall," Westerwelle said. "We module today hit to study how to intend backwards on the agency to success."

The thermonuclear supply helped the Greens to spectacular gains Sun and place them meet aweigh of the Social Democrats, traditionally Germany's main center-left party, in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

"This means that a different, fairer and ecological persuasion has opportunities in this country," co-leader Claudia author told ARD. "To hit a Green controller today in this heartland of the auto business and toolmaking is rattling a beatific result."

Whether it crapper be repeated elsewhere is additional question. The Greens hit daylong been strong in Baden-Wuerttemberg and prefabricated a sharp choice of politician in the probable newborn governor.

Ex-teacher Winfried Kretschmann, 62, "is standpat in cost of values, a Christian and so also electable for center-right voters in Baden-Wuerttemberg," Niedermayer said.

The thermonuclear supply gave the band an extra push, and "I would say that the Greens are somewhat overvalued in cost of their results in these elections," he added.

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