BERLIN - The politician everyone was talking about in the German capital the morning after national elections was not Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose party won the most votes, but the small-party kingmaker set to solidify her hold on power. And soon, the rest of the world will become acquainted with the new leading figure, the Free Democrats' Guido Westerwelle, too.

If longstanding German tradition holds dofus kamas, Mr. Westerwelle will be named vice chancellor and foreign minister in the new government, his reward for steering his free-market, pro-business party to its best result ever in a federal election.

The role of statesman likely rubbing shoulders with the likes of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the French foreign minister buy dofus kamas, Bernard Kouchner, in the near future is one Mr. Westerwelle, 47, has spent the past several years preparing for. He has worked hard to transform his image as the fun-loving clown prince of politics, who once appeared on the German version of the reality show "Big Brother," to that of the serious policymaker.

To judge by Sunday's election, the operation was a success cheap kamas. Mr. Westerwelle's Free Democrats emerged as the biggest winners of the day, watching their share of the vote rise by the largest amount of any party, to 14.6 percent, an increase of 4.7 percentage points over the previous election in 2005. It did so even as Mrs. Merkel's conservative bloc lost ground slightly with voters, pulling in just a third of the vote.

Mr. Westerwelle met with Mrs. Merkel Monday as part of negotiations to form the anticipated new center-right government, which the chancellor told voters during the campaign she needed to repair the country's economy dofsus gold. In a news conference, Mr. Westerwelle refused to discuss the division of top positions, including his own, saying, "It is about the right policies for our country and certainly not about these posts."

He went on to emphasize his "very good relationship" with the chancellor. Indeed, the openly gay Mr. Westerwelle came out in 2004 by bringing his partner to Mrs. Merkel's birthday party, while she was still in the opposition and the year before she became chancellor.

Mrs. Merkel said she expected the negotiations to move quickly and wanted the new government in place no later than Nov. 9, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall dofus money, when heads of state from around the world are expected to visit for the commemoration. But just because the two parties want to rule together does not mean it will necessarily be easy to reconcile their proposals.

"Mr. Westerwelle will strike a hard bargain when it comes to tax reform," said a prominent conservative legislator, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the negotiations over forming the new government.