Alternative for Germany party to chair budget committee in parliament

The Alternative for Germany party said Tuesday 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 as AfD, for its anti-migrant positions. An AfD lawmaker was blocked last week from joining a parliamentary committee that oversees the country’s intelligence services and earlier rejected the party’s candidate for deputy speaker, AP said. Chairmanship of the Bundestag’s budget committee traditionally falls to the biggest opposition party. That would be AfD if talks between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc and the center-left Social Democrats result in their forming a governing coalition.