Green leanings with muscle

GERMANY experienced a wave of protests over the existence of nuclear bases in the country following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan's Fukushima plant earlier this year.

But the successful demonstrations were just the latest in a long tradition of anti-nuclear peace movements in Germany, stretching back to the early 1960s.

As well as having a strong peace movement, Germany's anti-nuclear Green Party has traditionally performed well in elections and has used its political muscle to ensure it has been involved in numerous coalition governments.

Germany's anti-nuclear movement can be traced back to 1962, when the country's first nuclear plant started up in Kahl, south-east of Frankfurt.

The move sparked opposition from politicians and the public, but it was not until the early 1970s that the peace movement took shape, with the first anti-nuclear marches and protests taking place in 1970. Peace protests continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

The Greens also continued to do well in elections, with the party winning high levels of parliamentary and council representation.

However, the peace movement made real progress in 1999, when the Social Democrat-Green coalition government under chancellor Gerhard Schrder and the country's four main utilities started negotiations on a draft nuclear law, which set out a step-by-step nuclear phase-out.

In 2005 Germany ended all nuclear-waste shipments to Britain's Sellafield reprocessing plant and La Hague in France

But in 2010 the Christian Democratic-Free Democrat coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel approved the extension of the lifespan of Germany's nuclear reactors by an average of 12 years.

The move sparked more protests, which ultimately led to yesterday's decision to close Germany's nuclear power stations.