[7] In an interview with the South Wales Argus in 2019, he said he started participating in student activism during this period, claiming to have been elected as chair of his local branch of the Teacher's Association.

[10][11] German retired from teaching in 1990 to serve as the European director at the Welsh Joint Education Committee, where he led its unit in Europe before leaving the organisation in May 1999.

A close fight was expected between the two parties in Cathays, though German was not considered to be at risk, having established himself as a known national figure in the Liberal Democrats by this time.

[40] After the election result, German and his party called for the assembly to include more women and ethnic minority politicians than traditionally seen in UK legislatures.

In the same month, he was selected by the party to contest the assembly constituency of Caerphilly against Ron Davies, the leader of Labour in Wales who represented the same area in Westminster and was also standing for the seat.

[55][56] German launched its election manifesto on 11 April, which included commitments to focus on education, health and improved governance as its main priorities.

[58] German also pledged to introduce performance-related pay for members of the Welsh Cabinet, which would change depending on their performance on issues like NHS waiting times and their commitment to openness and the truth.

[65] German, Davies and Graham were re-elected again at the 2007 assembly election, with Laura Anne Jones losing her seat to Plaid Cymru's Mohammad Asghar.

[62] As a result, its leader Alun Michael considered forming a coalition administration with German's Liberal Democrats to grant him a governing majority and guarantee his nomination as the first-ever first secretary of Wales on 12 May, which could now face a potential challenge by the main opposition party Plaid Cymru.

[75][76] German and the Liberal Democrats disapproved of Michael's decision and argued that a minority administration would not provide the stability required of a devolved government for Wales.

[79][80] German criticised Michael's decision to split these responsibilities between two different ministerial posts as "ridiculous" and said "we should be looking to [instead] provide education and training from cradle to work to retirement".

[8][51][c] He supported the inclusion of a five-minute time limit for spoken contributions in the standing orders of the assembly and said he believed "you are not up to it if you can't make comments in five minutes".

[96][83] In August, German and Conservative leader Nick Bourne called for Alun Michael to reconvene the assembly earlier than the scheduled date of 14 September to address the ongoing farming crisis in the nation.

[109] As November progressed, German's Liberal Democrats started to work closer with the two other opposition parties in the assembly, the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru, on the issue of Objective One funding.

[110] A similar proposal was drawn up by Labour AM Val Feld which entailed the formation of a government of national unity between all four parties in the assembly, but this was rejected by Michael's administration.

[111] In January, Plaid Cymru made an ultimatum to Michael in which it warned that if he did not secure an additional £85 million in funding for 2000/2001 it would table another no confidence motion at the end of the budget debate on 8 February.

[109] On the same day, Michael called on Plaid Cymru to withdraw its threat of a motion of no confidence and said the UK Government would enable his administration to secure £1.2 billion in Objective One funding after its spending review in July.

[112] A no confidence motion was jointly tabled between Plaid's Ieuan Wyn Jones, German and the Conservatives' Nick Bourne for debate on 9 February.

[128][13][d] He was also appointed as the minister for economic development, succeeding Morgan in the role, which made him and his party responsible for the government's policy on the Objective One programme.

[13] The hopes and aspirations of Wales for Objective One are high, but I am also aware of a lot of anxiety that the programme may not be moving ahead quickly enough and concerns that it is not on track to deliver the maximum benefit ... [The task of the Group] will be to bring together local and regional action plans and look at how they fit into the strategy of the single programming document.On 25 October, German named the first 16 projects which would qualify for financial support from the Objective One programme.

[133] In 2001, German established a new advisory group to support him in developing and introducing a new government grant for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Wales and making sure it complied with EU aid regulations.

German also launched a new £13 million EU community scheme called EQUAL in March 2001 to fund campaigns against inequality and discrimination in the labour market.

[135] Labour's Jeff Jones, the chair of the WJEC and leader of Bridgend County Borough Council, called on German to resign from the cabinet for the duration of the audit.

In November 2007, Mike German became leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, after Lembit Opik stood down to ensure that the leadership of the party was in the National Assembly and not Westminster.

German's political interests include skills development in small and large companies in Wales, constitutional affairs, local government, economy and regeneration.

In Prime Minister Gordon Brown's 2010 Dissolution Honours list issued on 28 May 2010, German was nominated to serve as a working peer for life in the House of Lords for the Liberal Democrats.

[138][145][142] For the duration of the coalition, the Liberal Democrats in the UK Parliament set up parliamentary party committees which shadowed government ministries to address the concerns of its backbenchers.

[4] In March 2020, German, aged 74, continued to attend the House of Lords after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, ignoring health advice from the government which recommended that elderly people self-isolate at home and keep away from social gatherings.

[165][166] It was convention for the Lords not to overrule the Commons in this way under the terms of the long-agreed Salisbury Doctrine, however German argued that this was a rare situation where taking such a course of action to stop the bill was justified.

[181] He took part in a crash programme with Monmouth AM David TC Davies over the 1999 assembly summer recess to learn the language, having last taken lessons at school in 1961.