Nationalists to chair budget committee in German parliament

BERLIN – The nationalist Alternative for Germany party says one of its lawmakers will chair the German parliament’s budget committee, a key panel that oversees government spending.

The six other parties represented in the Bundestag have largely shunned lawmakers from the upstart party, known by its German acronym AfD, for its anti-migrant positions.

Last week, they blocked an AfD lawmaker from joining a parliamentary committee that oversees the country’s intelligence services and earlier rejected the party’s candidate for deputy speaker.

Chairmanship of the Bundestag’s budget committee traditionally falls to the biggest opposition party. That would be AfD, the party said Tuesday, if talks between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Union bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats result in their forming a governing coalition.