The Retreat from politics was difficult longtime FDP chairman and foreign minister. Then he decided to enjoy life. But for him let his serious illness no time.
The first interview with Guido Westerwelle I conducted in 1994 in Bonn. Well remembered is to me a set of then 32-year-old: “The FDP must never make as small again.” He took aim at his party’s campaign in the previous election campaign “FDP choose so Helmut Kohl Chancellor remains”.
This was for Westerwelle then an absolute low and he worked in the following nearly two decades in taking forward the liberals in Germany. should be estimated confidently and to their positions, the FDP. At that time he had no idea that the real low point for his party in 2013 should come from the federal to the departure.
As a child he had to bite through
Westerwelle was a fighter. Even as a child he had to bite through. The parents had divorced when he was eight years old – at that time an exceptional situation. He grew up with his father, to whom he always cultivated a close relationship. Due to poor performance, he moved from school to the junior high school, made the first middle maturity, then returned and was still a high school. In 1980 he began his law studies in his hometown of Bonn, in 1991 admitted to the bar and doctorate on the topic “the party law and the political youth organizations”.
In this field, he was at home. Since 1980 he was a member of the FDP and became the co-founder of the Young Liberals. Already here was Westerwelle’s understanding of politics. The JuLis were the antidote to the Young Democrats, the former youth wing of the FDP. This was regarded as part of the extra-parliamentary opposition, which was on the march through the institutions and support the left-liberal wing of the party. The JuLis and especially her later chairman Westerwelle favored the classical liberalism and support the right wing of the FDP.
He loved Shrill, sounds
This was also later when he as Secretary responsible a new party program, the Wiesbaden principles elaborated. During this time he served two party chairman: Klaus Kinkel and Wolfgang Gerhardt. Both showed him too much fixation on the Union. He wanted equidistance CDU / CSU as well as to red-green. The FDP should stand as an independent force. And he himself also
“Every ship, the evaporation and sailing, there is one who puts the matter -. And that’s me.” This sentence, spoken shortly after his election as party leader in 2001, was a household word – and is typical of the habit of the politician Westerwelle. Again and again, he has performed with pithy words. He loved the shrill, loud -, scoring sometimes over the top.
In the video: “Much too young torn from life”: To mourn friends and colleagues to Westerwelle
“Project 18″
Not only when he visited the Big Brother container. Also for example, when he pounded on it to run as candidate for chancellor of the FDP in the general election in 2002 and for the “Project 18,” calling. The desired percentage of votes of 18 percent he had stuck to the soles of shoes and he toured with a so-called Guido mobile across the country. Westerwelle made the FDP according to his critics for “Fun Party”
Nevertheless. He managed to maneuver the Liberals from the sidelines. Your share of the vote in the Bundestag elections in 2002 rose – from 6.2 to 7.4 percent. In 2005, she even came to 9.8 percent – and resisted the siren calls of the SPD to enter a traffic light coalition. That would be after Westerwelle considers again the best evidence was that it was the Liberals alone to join the government. That meant the end for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and formed the basis for Angela Merkel’s first grand coalition.
Westerwelle was set as the Federal Finance
This played Westerwelle in his hands, the FDP as a force positioning for economic Affairs. Achieved in 2009 the Liberals with 14.6 percent their best result at a general election. Westerwelle was placed in the public debate as German finance minister because of the basic orientation. But he chose the Foreign Office. There, the FDP had played a powerful role in the coalition, especially with Hans-Dietrich Genscher, many years.
The fixation on the Foreign Minister is the cause for the failure of the FDP in the government. The role of the Foreign Office had changed after the foreign policy was driven more and more from the chancellery since the reigns of Helmut Kohl. Especially succeeded Westerwelle in this role is not to implement the central FDP promises from the election campaign: Schwarz-Gelb decided no significant tax cuts. Westerwelle’s star fell.
In Video: The most emotional interview Guido Westerwelle
He was succeeded by Philipp Rösler
In 2011 he became as party leader under increasing pressure, because the FDP had massive losses in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg votes. In his environment, opposition began. Younger FDP politician – as the current chairman Christian Lindner – criticized the one-dimensionality of the FDP policy. The party Operating the insufficient socio-political topics, was the criticism. was formulated the idea of ”compassionate liberalism” as an alternative model to Westerwelle’s economic party.
As a result, Westerwelle did not run again in May 2013 in elections to the party chairmanship. He was succeeded by Philipp Rösler, who, however, did not turn the fortunes for the better, as the result of the election showed. Not only the liberals from the Bundestag from occurred. Even the politicians Westerwelle withdrew – disappointed, hurt, but always loyal. Westerwelle did not expect public with his internal party adversaries from.
He wanted to live now, have time for Michael Mronz, his longtime partner, with whom he lived in a registered partnership, and for his foundation, in which he for tried to enter international understanding. It was not granted to him. 2014 he received during a routine examination, the diagnosis, he was suffering from acute leukemia. This Friday Guido Westerwelle has succumbed to his illness.
In November 2015: That said, a leukemia expert at the chances of recovery
No comments:
Post a Comment