Westerwelle, who is expected be tapped as Merkel's deputy chancellor and foreign minister, led his party on Sunday to its best showing in its history and a likely place in government. Voters gave the conservatives 239 seats and the Free Democrats 93 in the lower house for a comfortable center-right majority of 332 seats to 290. The Social Democrats won 146, the Left Party 76 and the Greens 68. The results pave the way for Germany's first woman chancellor to form a conservative government with a politician who is openly gay.
A lawyer by training, the 47-year-old Westerwelle has been in a relationship for years with partner Michael Mronz. But his sexual orientation has rarely been an issue, either for him or for the German public in eight years of leading his party.
His Free Democrats made clear gains in Sunday's vote that give Merkel the chance to finally ditch the center-left Social Democrats, with whom she has governed uneasily for the past four years, and form her hoped-for coalition to enact tax cuts in an effort to spur economic growth.
“We have managed to achieve our election aim of a stable majority in Germany for a new government,” Merkel told supporters, beaming even though her own party suffered its worst showing since 1953.
“We are ready to take on this responsibility,” Westerwelle told his supporters at the party's election night celebration in Berlin.
