Impassioned Westerwelle staves off critics - for now (News Feature)

By Helen Maguire Jan 6, 2011, 17:32 GMT

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle squared up to opponents in his Free Democratic Party on Thursday, in an impassioned speech at a party gathering that left no doubt about his intention to remain FDP leader.

The 49-year-old minister fended off the recent calls for his resignation - not with the promise of change or a recognition of past mistakes, but with an impassioned, fist-shaking insistence that his pro-business party was on the right path.

'Anyone who wants to lead a country must be prepared to endure periods of drought,' Westerwelle thundered, in response to months of abysmal opinion poll ratings which place doubt on the party's ability to re-enter parliament in a string of state elections this year.

Westerwelle, who has led the FDP for 10 years, repeatedly emerges in opinion polls as one of Germany's least favourite politicians, failing to draw on the popularity that the office of foreign minister has bestowed on predecessors.

The downfall of the FDP - the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right coalition - could become a political liability forcing the government to limp on with curbed powers to implement legislation, until federal elections in 2013.

Dressed with a striped black and yellow tie - the coalition colours - Westerwelle did not waver as he launched into a 70-minute rallying call, drawing on historical parallels to back his decision to stay the course.

Germany, he told party members in Stuttgart, could not do without the FDP, since the country needed a party that 'fights for the freedom to take responsibility.'

Not once did he question who should lead that party, or why it consistently reaps less than 5 per cent of popular support in opinion polls.

'We have the courage to do what we recognize to be right, even if we are not congratulated for it every day,' Westerwelle insisted.

He credited the FDP with helping Germany bounce back from the global economic crisis, and insisted it was their free enterprise values that would enable the country to remain competitive in the global economy.

'We must clearly defend the successes we have fought for,' the embattled leader demanded of his party members.

To those who argue the party achieved too little in its first year in office, he insisted, 'We are going in the right direction, the start has been made.'

To those who accuse the party of political opportunism and clientele politics, he responded, 'We are pursuing these policies because it is our conviction that they are best for the people in our country.'

His fierce determination to continue steering the FDP along its current course failed to acknowledge the changes afoot, not just in popular opinion but also within his party.

Christian Lindner, the party's barely 32-year-old general secretary, was left to address the uncomfortable truths, like the boy who points to the proverbial emperor's lack of clothes.

'We are on the verge of trying times,' Lindner told the party faithful, gathered in Stuttgart's national theatre, in the capital of Baden-Wuerttemberg state - an FDP stronghold where the party could face one of its most embarrassing electoral defeats.

Westerwelle's performance in Stuttgart set the stage for dramatic months to come.

If the FDP lose the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in elections on March 27, Westerwelle's fate will likely be sealed when the party elects a leader at its conference in May.

If this is the case, commentators will refer back to his January speech as the one in which he failed to regain the ground lost since entering government.

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