What the Greens want is completely irrelevant to Merkel's government and has been for as long as she has been Bundeskanzlerin.

Abandoning nuclear energy is a widely accepted move by the majority of the population and across political parties. If anything the people wanting to keep nuclear energy, are in a minority. A minority that is not willing to risk actually advocating for nuclear energy.

You know how much the consumer price of electricity has gone up in Germany?

And I bet until last week the German "consumer" loved diesel powered cars (and the tax benefits) and ignored the down sides of targeting CO2 vs NOX

The parent's comment is accruate on the only important point here -- Germans don't like nuclear power.

The phase out of nuclear power isn't the result of a coalition trying to appease a radical fringe component. It's broadly reflective of public will in Germany.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries...

The consumer price of electricity has gone up but that's a complex problem with many reasons behind it. Abandoning nuclear energy is not the only reason and probably one of the least important ones.

Even if it were a reason, reversing again on this topic and not abandoning nuclear power would have no impact on prices by itself. New nuclear plants would have to be built which would take decades, even if you could find locations where such a plant would be tolerated.

Breaking the link between the electorate and individual candidates/officeholders is true of party list methods which aren't the only way of achieving PR. STV in small multimember districts is just as candidate centered as FPTP methods (arguably moreso, in that there remains candidate choice within the same path preferences at the general elections.)