Guido Westerwelle

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Guido Westerwelle

Dr. iur. Guido Westerwelle (born December 27, 1961) is a German politician and leader of the liberal Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP).

1 Early life and education
2 Life in the FDP
3 His politics
4 Homosexuality
5 External links

[edit] Early life and education

Guido Westerwelle was born in Bad Honnef, Germany. After graduating from Gymnasium in 1980, he studied law at the University of Bonn from 1980 to 1987. Following the First and Second State Law Examinations in 1987 and 1991 respectively, he began practicing as an attorney in Bonn in 1991. In 1994, he earned a doctoral degree in law from the University of Hagen.

[edit] Life in the FDP

Westerwelle joined the FDP in 1980. He was a founding member of Junge Liberale, the youth organisation of the FDP and was their chairman from 1983 to 1988. He has been a member of the Executive Board of the FDP since 1988 and became Secretary General in 1994. In 1996, he was elected to the German parliament (Bundestag), succeeded Wolfgang Gerhardt in 2001 as FDP chairman and in the elections of September 2002, he was the FDP's chancellor-candidate. It was the first and only time that the FDP nominated one. In the elections of 2005, he was just "head candidate" again. In the spring of 2006, he is going to succeed Gerhardt as leader of the Bundestag parliamentary group, too.

[edit] His politics

Westerwelle is a staunch supporter of the free market and has proposed reforms that would curtail the German welfare state and liberalise German labour law. He has advocated for substantial tax cuts and believes in smaller government. While this is in line with the general direction of his party, his chairmanship has seen considerable controversy. Critics inside and outside the FDP have accused him of focusing his energy on public relations, as opposed to developing and promoting sound public policy. Westerwelle himself, who was made party chairman particularly because his predecessor Wolfgang Gerhardt had been viewed by many as dull and stiff, has labeled his approach as Spaßpolitik (fun politics) in the past, a description that many now consider to be a liability.

Furthermore, Guido Westerwelle has been strongly criticized for supporting the anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic campaigns of Jürgen Möllemann. It was only after an infamous anti-Israeli leaflet was distributed before the general election in 2002 that Westerwelle was forced to distance himself of Möllemann as he intended to become the foreign minister in a new government.

After the 2005 elections he gained reputation by not compromising the political party line in ruling out a possible participation in a coalition with the SPD and the Green party.

[edit] Homosexuality

On July 20, 2004, Westerwelle attended Angela Merkel's 50th birthday party accompanied by his male partner, Cologne businessman Michael Mronz and thereby officially acknowledged that he was gay. It was the first time he was at an official gathering with his partner and made clear that he no longer expected his relationship with Mronz to be treated discreetly. Since several leading politicians in Western Europe have come out, such as the popular heads of government in the states of Berlin (Klaus Wowereit) and Hamburg (Ole von Beust), European Commissioner Peter Mandelson in Britain or Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, it generated relatively little controversy in the German public.