Germany’s first Green governor takes office in traditionally conservative state

<p>STUTTGART, Germany – Germany’s first state governor from the Green party has taken office, weeks after an election in which Japan’s post-earthquake nuclear disaster played a significant role.</p> <p>Winfried Kretschmann will lead Baden-Wuerttemberg, a prosperous region in Germany’s southwest, in a centre-left coalition with the Social Democrats. Both parties are in opposition at national level.</p> <p>The 62-year-old Kretschmann was elected governor Thursday by 73 of the 138 lawmakers in the state legislature in Stuttgart.</p> <p>That puts an end to decades of rule in the conservative region by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, who had governed Baden-Wuerttemberg since 1958.</p> <p>The Greens were helped by their longstanding opposition to nuclear energy in the March 27 state election.</p>