October 21, 2012
BERLIN (AP) — Voters in Germany's southwestern city of Stuttgart have elected the environmentalist Greens' candidate Fritz Kuhn as mayor, preliminary results showed Sunday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel's party losing power there for the first time in almost four decades.
Kuhn will be the center-left party's first mayor in a German state capital, securing a victory in the run-off vote that will likely boost the Greens less than a year before planned national elections.
Kuhn received 52.9 percent of the vote and Sebastian Turner, an independent candidate running for Merkel's center-right bloc, secured 45.3 percent, the city's electoral commission said after counting 100 percent of the ballots.
The result came about 18 months after the anti-nuclear Greens managed to oust Merkel's party after almost six decades in power in traditionally conservative Baden-Wuerttemberg state, of which Stuttgart is the capital. The Greens' leader Winfried Kretschmann since became the party's first state governor, leading a coalition government with the center-left Social Democrats.
The prosperous southwestern region is home to carmakers Daimler AG, Porsche SE, software house SAP AG and many mid-size firms that make up Germany's export champions. Some 400,000 residents were eligible to vote in Stuttgart on Sunday. Turnout was just above 45 percent.
The first round of voting had already seen Kuhn slightly ahead of Turner, but he fell short of securing a majority. The conservative incumbent, Wolfgang Schuster, could not seek a third term. Merkel's Christian Democrats have held power in the city since 1974.
BERLIN (AP) — Voters in Germany's southwestern city of Stuttgart have elected the environmentalist Greens' candidate Fritz Kuhn as mayor, preliminary results showed Sunday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel's party losing power there for the first time in almost four decades.
Kuhn will be the center-left party's first mayor in a German state capital, securing a victory in the run-off vote that will likely boost the Greens less than a year before planned national elections.
Kuhn received 52.9 percent of the vote and Sebastian Turner, an independent candidate running for Merkel's center-right bloc, secured 45.3 percent, the city's electoral commission said after counting 100 percent of the ballots.
The result came about 18 months after the anti-nuclear Greens managed to oust Merkel's party after almost six decades in power in traditionally conservative Baden-Wuerttemberg state, of which Stuttgart is the capital. The Greens' leader Winfried Kretschmann since became the party's first state governor, leading a coalition government with the center-left Social Democrats.
The prosperous southwestern region is home to carmakers Daimler AG, Porsche SE, software house SAP AG and many mid-size firms that make up Germany's export champions. Some 400,000 residents were eligible to vote in Stuttgart on Sunday. Turnout was just above 45 percent.
The first round of voting had already seen Kuhn slightly ahead of Turner, but he fell short of securing a majority. The conservative incumbent, Wolfgang Schuster, could not seek a third term. Merkel's Christian Democrats have held power in the city since 1974.
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