JERUSALEM: LEADER OF GERMANY'S FREE DEMOCRATIC PARTY (FDP) GUIDO WESTERWELLE VISITS THE YAD VASHEM MEMORIAL

Record ID: 584744

  • Title: JERUSALEM: LEADER OF GERMANY'S FREE DEMOCRATIC PARTY (FDP) GUIDO WESTERWELLE VISITS THE YAD VASHEM MEMORIAL
  • Date: 27th May 2002
  • Summary: (W5)JERUSALEM (MAY 27, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. PULL OUT: GUIDO WESTERWELLE, HEAD OF GERMANY'S FREE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, STANDING AT THE ETERNAL FLAME IN JERUSALEM'S YAD VASHEM HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL 0.13 2. WIDE SHOT OF MEMORIAL HALL 0.17 3. MV: WESTERWELLE TURNING UP ETERNAL FLAME 0.29 4. CLOSEUP OF ETERNAL FLAME 0.34 5. SCU: WESTERWELLE STANDING AT ETERNAL FLAME 0.39 6. WIDE SHOT OF HALL 0.44 7. MV: WESTERWELLE LAYING WREATH ON MEMORIAL 1.19 8. MV: WESTERWELLE LEAVING HALL 1.34 9. LV: EXTERIOR OF MEMORIAL HALL 1.38 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 11th June 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVAC9QHNYHEK2HLLRYKRSGARD4DL
  • Story Text: Guido Westerwelle, new leader of Germany's Free
    Democratic Party (FDP) has visited the Yad Vashem memorial in
    Jerusalem.

    His tour to the Mideast region comes after the Central
    Council of Jews in Germany demanded that FDP deputy leader
    Juergen Moellemann apologise for saying Israeli Prime Minister
    Ariel Sharon was fuelling anti-Jewish sentiment by his action
    against the Palestinians.


    The row is awkward for new FDP leader Guido Westerwelle
    because it coincides with his visit to Israel this week, where
    he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

    When it forms part of a German government coalition the
    FDP has traditionally held the foreign ministry.

    Westerwelle has distanced himself from Moellemann's
    comments. But in an interview with Bild am Sonntag he said he
    would welcome attracting voters from the far left or far right
    who had previously "sought a valve for their frustration".

    Germany's liberal Free Democrats are being accused of
    adopting right-wing populism similar to that of Austria's
    Joerg Haider or murdered Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn to catch
    votes in a general election in September.

    The Central Council of Jews in Germany has demanded that
    FDP deputy leader Juergen Moellemann apologise for saying
    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was fuelling anti-Jewish
    sentiment by his action against the Palestinians.

    Moellemann has also accused Israel of "trampling over
    international law" and said Michel Friedman, deputy head of
    the Council of Jews, was stirring anti-Jewish feelings in
    Germany with his "intolerant and spiteful manner."
    Moellemann, 56, a maverick self-publicist who has often
    stirred controversy and likes to parachute into campaign
    rallies, has so far refused to say sorry and told Der Spiegel
    magazine at the weekend that his comments remained true.

    His words are unusually harsh in a country where World War
    Two guilt long mandated unwavering public support for the
    Jewish state and sensitivity towards the Jewish community.

    He said e-mails he had received from members of the public
    supporting his comments "exceed anything I expected."
    "We must say things out loud that other politicians have
    declared taboo, for whatever reason. The divide between what
    the political class says and what people think is huge," he
    said.

    The dispute has struck a nerve in Germany following recent
    election successes for the far-right across Europe, as voters
    have punished mainstream parties for failing to heed their
    fears about rising crime and immigration.

    A leading conservative, Juergen Ruettgers, said the FDP
    was "playing with fire."
    Israeli President Moshe Katsav said anti-Jewish sentiment
    had increased drastically in Belgium and France and now seemed
    to be on the rise in Germany as well.

    "The democratic right to free speech does not include the
    right to insult Jews," he told Bild newspaper in an interview
    to be published on Monday (May 27).

    Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has called
    the FDP unfit to govern and said its attempt to fish for votes
    "in murky waters" matched a dangerous trend emerging in
    Europe.

    Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Moellemann was
    trying to mobilise public sentiment in a way "that leads him
    into the direct vicinity of Haider and suchlike."
    "I would not have thought it possible for us to be having
    such a debate in 2002," Fischer told Welt am Sonntag. The FDP
    was making German Jews feel alone and depressed, he said.

    The pro-business FDP has itself been a firm part of the
    political mainstream so far and the row signals a rightward
    shift as it senses the chance of victory in the September
    vote.

    Recent opinion poll ratings of over 10 percent give the
    FDP a good chance of entering government this year, possibly
    in alliance again with the conservatives, who are ahead of
    Schroeder's Social Democrats.

    Electoral researchers say Moellemann's stance could win
    the FDP votes. But the party is walking a tightrope as the
    conservatives, its most likely partner in a new government,
    have expressed concern at Moellemann's comments.

    The FDP, party of venerable former foreign minister
    Hans-Dietrich Genscher, was in government for three decades
    until the 1998 election, first as partner to the Social
    Democrats and then Kohl's Christian Democrats.

    The FDP, wiped out in the 1998 election, has won regional
    votes over the last year under Westerwelle, who has courted
    young, upwardly mobile voters with a leisurely style that
    included a guest appearance on the "Big Brother" reality
    television show.


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