Berlin, March 27: Alarmed by the unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in four major German cities, demanding an immediate nuclear energy exit and closing down of all atomic power stations in the country.
The organisers of the demonstrations said that over a quarter million protesters took part in rallies and marches in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich yesterday.
They carried banners saying “Fukushima warns: close down all reactors.”
The demonstrations took place on the eve of two key state elections in which the nuclear issue is the central theme.
Opinion polls forecast that anti-nuclear Green Party and the Social Democratic Party (SPD, which favours an early phasing out of all 17 atomic reactors of the country, will make big gains in the state of Baden Wuerttemberg and in Rhineland Palatinate.
–PTI