ANALYSIS: Germany's "no-name" Westerwelle's wide-eyed foreign debut

By Helen Maguire Nov 7, 2009, 15:20 GMT

   Berlin - Guido Westerwelle had a busy first week in office. Hours after being sworn in as Germany's new foreign minister, he was shaking hands at an EU summit, looking the part of the new boy on his first day at school.

   In quick succession he visited Warsaw, Luxembourg, Brussels, Paris and Washington - smiling, shaking hands, and ogling at the splendour of his new surroundings.

   Westerwelle, the brash, self-righteous leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) during eight years of opposition, appeared to have emerged from adolescence as he gingerly took his first steps in office.

   The foreign minister has been busy with his homework, consisting of a steady stream of files and briefings. At the same time, his international counterparts have also had to read up on the newcomer, who has never held a ministerial post.

   At first the 47-year-old exuded chuffed excitement, having reached the pinnacle of his career after his party sidled into government with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats in elections earlier this year.

   At every step, he appeared to be checking himself this week. On the first day with his European colleagues in Brussels, he said his job was to listen. Everyone was so friendly, so welcoming, he added.

   In Paris, Westerwelle was 'overcome by the friendliness with which I have been received.' Mostly however, he was dazzled by the gilded chandeliers of the foreign ministry's Salon d'Horloge.

'This is one of the most beautiful rooms to have ever been permitted to hold a press conference in,' he said.

By the time he reached Washington he had toned down his language. 'I have had no time yet for touristic sensations,' he said, adding that the honour to represent Germany came with a tightly packed schedule.

   During the course of the week a grown-up, serious statesman began to emerge.

Westerwelle, whose political gimmicks included touring the country in his yellow 'Guido-mobile' car, and inscribing the sole of his shoe with '18,' the percentage he wanted his FDP to achieve in parliament, appeared to have come of age.

Even the trademark yellow tie (yellow is the colour of the FDP) was banished to the closet. Unlike his homosexuality, which Westerwelle wears with quiet assertion.

Westerwelle's burgeoning international role began with a hiccup, after he refused to respond in English to a BBC journalist on the day after he was voted in to office.

The incident refused to go away, as Westerwelle kept being asked questions about his language abilities and, in response, took to demonstrably throwing in snippets of English, such as 'Have a nice day.'

   A fake account in the name 'Westerwave' ('Welle' is German for 'wave') proved popular on social networking site Twitter, mocking the German 'outside minister' with comments in badly translated English.

   In actual fact, Westerwelle does speak good, if halting, English, leaving his team of interpreters with little to do at the EU summit in Brussels.

   Once the novelty of Germany's new foreign minister wears off, the time will come where listening will not be enough, and Westerwelle will be expected to start speaking his mind on policy issues.

   Aside from Germany's long-standing foreign policy objectives - including hotspots such as the Middle East and Afghanistan - the foreign minister has few projects to call his own.

   He made a statement by pointedly visiting Poland, then Luxembourg and Belgium before setting foot in France, to signal the importance of Germany's eastern neighbours, and of Europe's smaller member states.

   Westerwelle has also called on the US to remove its nuclear arsenal stationed on German soil, a demand which will not in fact have a great impact on Germany or the US - or nuclear warfare in the world.

   Indeed it remains to be seen how close a leash Merkel keeps on the foreign policy portfolio, which she tightly guarded in the days of Westerwelle's predecessor, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the Social Democrats.

   Westerwelle should not get too used to smiles and hand-shakes, or he may find that there is little else for him to do.