German Liberals
2009/09/29
The probable next German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, is closely linked to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation not just through general intra-party cooperation. The foundation is directed by Wolfgang Gerhardt, the longtime chairman, both of the FDP Party (1995 - 2001) and its parliamentary caucus in the German Bundestag (1998 - 2006). Gerhardt was in line to become the German foreign minister, had there been a Christian Democrat / FDP electoral victory in 2005. Following the FDP's electoral defeat, Gerhardt became the chairman of the party affiliated foundation, which also provides him with a framework for intensive foreign policy activities. Guido Westerwelle had also been a fellow of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and is said to "still now" have very close ties to its networks "to the extent that his agenda permits."[1]
Heavy Attacks
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which receives millions in state subventions - e.g. 36 million Euros in 2007 -, embodies, like no other institution, the foreign policy of its party. Over the past few years, it has drawn attention through heavy attacks on countries and governments that, for various reasons, had become obstacles to Berlin's foreign policy.
Against Beijing
The Naumann Foundation's anti-Chinese activities, particularly the Tibet campaign in the spring of 2008, caused a commotion. Since the early 1990s, the foundation had been organizing conferences at regular intervals to which delegates of the Tibetan "exile government" as well as Tibetan autonomists were invited from around the world. At one of these conferences plans were forged, in May 2007, to apply pressure on the People's Republic of China with a Tibet campaign during the period leading up to the Olympics in Beijing. These plans ultimately resulted, among other things, in the worldwide actions disrupting the torch relay, blemishing China's image. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[2]) The FDP affiliated foundation has continuously been supporting organizations seeking to restore exiled Tibetan feudal nobles to power and glory, and weaken Beijing's control over that region. With Westerwelle as Foreign Minister, the Chinese government would hardly tolerate the German liberals' "continued open support for exile Tibetan groups and the Dalai Lama," according to experts.[3]
Against Teheran
Whereas the activities around Tibet are aimed at weakening Germany's strategic rival, China, the foundation's recent efforts concerning Iran are aimed at a power, seen to be an obstacle to the West's gaining control over the Persian Gulf, a region rich in natural resources. The foundation convened a symposium, last June, with the focus on the "ethnic question" in the "multi-ethnic nation," Iran.[4] The "time" has come, claims the foundation, to "more strongly focus international public opinion" on the needs of Iran's ethnic minorities, the "Azerbaijani, Kurds, Arabs, Balochs, Turkmens". As with the German Liberal's Tibet policy, this policy also corresponds to Berlin's old strategy of weakening adversary nations by exacerbating their internal contradictions. In the case of Yugoslavia, a liberal foreign minister, in the early 90s, pushed this strategy to the point, where after German recognition of several secessionist constituent republics, the country disintegrated into a bloody civil war. The diverse memorials honoring Hans Dietrich Genscher that can be visited in Croatia show the dimensions of German support for ethnic autonomy and secessionist movements.
Against Caracas
This summer, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's Latin American activities provoked an additional stir. On the subcontinent, the foundation maintains neoliberal oriented networks, whose main objective is to oppose those seeking to stem the flow of their domestic wealth to North America and Europe - particularly the current governments of Venezuela and Bolivia. German liberals maintain very close relations to the opponents of both countries' governments.[5] The foundation also has close ties to those forces in Honduras, who sought to prevent their president, Manuel Zelaya, from developing closer relations with Venezuela and Bolivia. They staged a putsch, forcing him from office. Human rights as well as religious development aid organizations have begun criticizing the Naumann Foundation's open support for the putschists in Honduras, because of the putschists' persecution of their partners in that country.[6] An international human rights mission recently raised serious accusations against the putschists, who are still supported by the German liberals.[7]
Intensification
The aggressive activities of the FDP affiliated foundation provide an idea of the basic contours, in which the probable German Foreign Minister will now maneuver: an intensification of attacks on China, Iran and those Latin American nations, striving for a modicum of autonomy will be among the key elements of the liberal's program.
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