German Chancellor Angela Merkel today criticized Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle over his barbed attack on welfare state handouts, according to dpa. Westerwelle, who leads the junior party in Merkel's government, had criticized state handouts for the long-term unemployed - dubbed Hartz-IV - after the Constitutional Court ruled that these needed to be reassessed. "I have made it clear that, what Guido Westerwelle said, is not my words. It is not my style," Merkel said during a political rally on Ash Wednesday, when Germany's political leaders traditionally hold firebrand addresses. Westerwelle had said that increasing state handouts for the long- term unemployed reinforced socialist tendencies. "Whoever promises the people effortless prosperity encourages late Roman decadence," he wrote in German daily Welt. Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Free Democrats (FDP) led by Westerwelle are governing in a coalition marked by political infighting during the first three months. Westerwelle's comments, seen as an attempt to raise the profile of the FDP ahead of critical state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, have prompted a fierce debate across the political spectrum. Earlier in the day, the FDP leader defended his stance. "It was necessary to articulate what needed to articulated," he told supporters, adding that diplomacy alone would not have stimulated the debate. Recent polls show that the FDP may have slumped to 7 per cent, less than half the ratings that enabled them to enter government after last year's general election.
