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AFP: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110327...20110327175253

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives lost power in their German heartland after nearly six decades, initial poll results showed Sunday, with the Greens likely to lead their first state government.

Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) have ruled Baden-Wuerttemberg since 1953, but anger over her nuclear policy in light of the Japan crisis as well as decisions on Libya and the euro drove away voters in the run-up to the poll.

The anti-nuclear Greens claimed about 24 percent of the vote -- about 12 point higher than five years ago -- and were likely to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, who garnered about 23 percent in the rich state.

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Nuclear power is unpopular in Germany, but polls indicated that voters saw Merkel's zigzagging as an electoral ploy: it has cost her support while boosting the Greens.

Forty-five percent of voters in Baden-Wuerttemberg said nuclear power played a role in their decision, and Social Democrats leader Sigmar Gabriel declared: "Today the final decision on the end of nuclear power in Germany was made."

Adding to the pressure, tens of thousands of Germans hit the streets Saturday in four major cities to protest the government's nuclear policy. Organisers said as many as 250,000 took part.