The result was declared on 20 November 1998: Mike German was declared the winner and went onto to lead the Welsh Liberal Democrat Campaign. He later described himself as a '[group] leader in waiting'. After the result, the
Western Mail commented that: German went on to lead the Welsh Liberal Democrat campaign during the
1999 elections to the Welsh Assembly, where he was elected in
South Wales East as one of the six seats won by the Welsh Liberal Democrats, and was then formally made Welsh Liberal Democrat Group Leader. German would go on to take his party into government in 2000 and serve as
Deputy First Minister of Wales under
Rhodri Morgan. Christine Humphreys entered the assembly as a member for
North Wales. German would continue to lead his group into the
2003 and
2007 elections, where the Welsh Liberal Democrats would return the same six seats as they had in 1999. In
2007, German became overall party leader, taking over from
Lembit Öpik. He stood down from both roles in
2008 and was succeeded by
Kirsty Williams ==References==