Free Democrats Hope To Regain Power But German Centrist Party Called Irrelevant By Foes On Both Left And Right

Liberals fought off a move to push the Free Democratic Party to the right Saturday and elected a new leader who promised to reverse the party’s disastrous slide from its central role in German politics.

Delegates at a three-day conference chose Wolfgang Gerhardt, a 30-year party soldier, to end a string of electoral debacles for the Free Democrats, junior party in Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s government.

The Free Democrats have been squarely at the center of postwar German politics, modulating left- and right-wing policies in all but two governments since 1949. Their decline has raised the chance that leftist Social Democrats and Greens could come to power in the next few years.

Gerhardt, nicknamed the “snoring lion” by part of the German press, has little national recognition but has done well in Hesse state, where in February he led the party to its only victory in 12 state elections in two years.

The challenge he will face was characterized by Juergen Moellemann, who opposed Gerhardt. “Two of three German voters think we’re dead,” Moellemann said.

The Free Democrats stand for less government and more civil liberties, but they have lost profile because their major proposals have failed or were co-opted by Kohl’s party.

Gerhardt’s supporters said he would stage a vigorous imageenhancing campaign pushing for cuts in red tape and taxes. The party’s mocking opponents weren’t impressed.

Six environmental activists greeted delegates at the convention center entrance Saturday morning by pulling down their pants. “The End - FDP” was spelled out in blue paint on their bare buttocks.

“His election will do nothing to stop the FDP’s inexorable march toward irrelevancy,” said Social Democratic spokeswoman Dagmar Wiebusch.