Editing Guido Westerwelle (section)

==Career in the FDP==
[[file:Archiv Kosinsky 0671.jpg|thumb|left|Westerwelle in 1988]]
Westerwelle joined the FDP in 1980. He was a founding member of the ''[[Young Liberals (Germany)|Junge Liberale]]'' (Young Liberals), which became the party's official youth organization in 1983, and he was its chairman from 1983 to 1988. In a 1988 newspaper interview, he singled out the FDP's rejection of an [[Tax amnesty|amnesty for tax offenders]] and its diminished enthusiasm for nuclear power as fruits of the youth wing's labors.<ref name="Profile: Guido Westerwelle">{{Cite news |date=2002-09-11 |title=Profile: Guido Westerwelle |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/not_in_website/syndication/monitoring/media_reports/2247134.stm |access-date=2025-05-10 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

He was a member of the executive board of the FDP from 1988,<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 August 2011 |title=Westerwelle und die FDP – Der lange Lauf des Guido W. |trans-title=Westerwelle and the FDP – The Long Run of Guido W. |url=http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/guido-westerwelle-und-die-fdp-das-auf-und-ab-des-guido-w-1.1080757-3 |access-date=18 March 2016 |website=Süddeutsche Zeitung |language=de}}</ref> and in 1994, he was appointed secretary general of the party.<ref name="Profile: Guido Westerwelle" />

In 1996, Westerwelle was first elected a member of the Bundestag, filling in for Heinz Lanfermann, who had resigned from his seat after entering the [[Federal Ministry of Justice (Germany)|Ministry of Justice]]. In the [[1998 German federal election|1998 national elections]], he was re-elected to parliament. As his parliamentary group's home affairs spokesman, he was instrumental in swinging the FDP behind a 1999 government bill to make German citizenship available to children born in Germany of non-German parents.<ref name="Profile: Guido Westerwelle" />

In 2001, Westerwelle succeeded [[Wolfgang Gerhardt]] as party chairman. Gerhardt, however, remained chairman of the FDP's parliamentary group. Westerwelle, the youngest party chairman at the time, emphasized economics and education, and espoused a strategy initiated by his deputy [[Jürgen Möllemann]], who, as chairman of the [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] branch of the FDP, had led his party back into the state parliament, gaining 9.8% of the vote. This strategy, transferred to the federal level, was dubbed ''Project 18'', referring both to the envisioned percentage and the German age of majority. Leading up to the 2002 elections, he positioned his party equidistantly from the major parties and refused to commit his party to a coalition with either the [[Christian Democratic Union (Germany)|Christian Democrats]] or the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democrats]]. He was also named the [[Chancellor candidate|FDP's candidate for the office]] of [[Chancellor of Germany (Federal Republic)|chancellor]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 May 2002 |title=Westerwelle erster Kanzlerkandidat der FDP |trans-title=Westerwelle is the FDP's first chancellor candidate |url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/wahlkampf-westerwelle-erster-kanzlerkandidat-der-fdp-160522.html#/elections |access-date=18 March 2016 |work=Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung |language=de}}</ref> Since the FDP had never claimed such a candidacy (and hasn't done since) and had no chance of attaining it against the two major parties, this move was widely seen as political marketing alongside other ploys, such as driving around in a campaign van dubbed the ''Guidomobile'', wearing the figure ''18'' on the soles of his shoes or appearing in the [[Big Brother (TV series)|''Big Brother'' TV show]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=FDP-Kanzlerkandidat – "Eher wird Pieper Päpstin als Westerwelle Kanzler" – Deutschland |trans-title=FDP Chancellor Candidate – "Pieper is more likely to become Pope than Westerwelle Chancellor" – Germany |url=http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/488/399272/text/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130212154158/http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/488/399272/text/ |archive-date=12 February 2013 |access-date=25 April 2010 |website=Süddeutsche Zeitung |publisher=sueddeutsche.de GmbH |publication-place=Munich, Germany}}</ref> Eventually, the [[2002 German federal election|federal elections]] yielded a slight increase of the FDP's vote from 6.2% to 7.4%. Despite this setback, he was reelected as party chairman in 2003.<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 May 2003 |title=Westerwelle gibt Fehler zu – Wiederwahl zum FDP-Chef mit schlechterem Ergebnis als 2001 |trans-title=Westerwelle admits mistakes – re-elected as FDP leader with a worse result than in 2001 |url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/westerwelle-gibt-fehler-zu-wiederwahl-zum-fdp-chef-mit-schlechterem-ergebnis-als-2001/415218.html |access-date=18 March 2016 |website=Tagesspiegel |language=de}}</ref>

In the [[2005 German federal election|federal elections of 2005]], Westerwelle was his party's front-runner. When neither Chancellor [[Gerhard Schröder]]'s Social Democrats and Greens nor a coalition of Christian and Free Democrats, favored by [[Angela Merkel]] and Westerwelle, managed to gain a majority of seats, Westerwelle rejected overtures by Chancellor Schröder to save his chancellorship by entering his coalition, preferring to become one of the leaders of the disparate opposition of the subsequently formed "Grand Coalition" of Christian and Social Democrats, with Merkel as chancellor. Westerwelle became a vocal critic of the new government. In 2006, according to an internal agreement, Westerwelle succeeded Wolfgang Gerhardt as chairman of the parliamentary group.<ref name=welt/><ref>{{Cite web |date=27 September 2005 |title=Gerhardt zum FDP-Fraktionsvorsitzenden auf Zeit gewählt |trans-title=Gerhardt elected interim chairman of the FDP parliamentary group |url=http://www.rp-online.de/politik/deutschland/gerhardt-zum-fdp-fraktionsvorsitzenden-auf-zeit-gewaehlt-aid-1.1593852 |access-date=18 March 2016 |website=Rheinische Post |language=de}}</ref>

Over the following years, in an effort to broaden the party's appeal, Westerwelle embraced its left wing under former justice minister [[Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger]] and focused his campaign messages on tax cuts, education and civil rights.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Weiland |first=Severin |date=2009-09-28 |title=FDP Triumph: Westerwelle Tries to Allay Fears of Center-Right Coalition |url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/fdp-triumph-westerwelle-tries-to-allay-fears-of-center-right-coalition-a-651884.html |access-date=2025-05-10 |work=Der Spiegel |language=en |issn=2195-1349}}</ref>