Der Spiegel:

Never before have so many Germans been prepared to vote for the Green Party. But its success comes at a price. The party’s mobilization against Merkel’s plan to extend nuclear lifespans means its hoped-for path to power has now been blocked.
The good news for Germany’s Green Party just keeps on coming. In survey after survey, the erstwhile protest party is receiving record support: 23 percent in Bavaria, 27 percent in Baden-Württemberg and, in a poll released on Wednesday, an amazing 22 percent countrywide, just two percentage points behind the center-left Social Democrats.
But help isn’t just coming from German voters. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, by announcing concrete plans to extend the lifespans of Germany’s nuclear reactors by up to 14 years, recently provided yet more wind in the party’s sails. The Greens cut their political teeth on massive anti-nuclear power protests back in the 1970s. Now, after years of watching other parties — including Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) — encroach on their environmental territory, the Green’s have their signature issue back.
“From a tactical point of view, the Greens must be screaming for joy right now,” Gerd Langguth, a former CDU parliamentarian who now teaches at the University of Bonn, told SPEIGEL ONLINE. “They have their issue back. Their unique selling point will become much more visible.”
On the strategic horizon, however, dark clouds are gathering. Having been in opposition in Berlin since Merkel’s ascendancy to the Chancellery in 2005, the Greens had begun dreaming of a possible coalition with her conservatives following the next parliamentary elections in 2013. But with the CDU now planning an extension of Germany’s

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