ANTIMIGRATION POLITICAL PARTY TAKES SEATS IN PARLIAMENT

BERLIN— The rightist and antimigration Alternative for Germany debuted at the German Bundestag on Tuesday, marking the first time rightists took seats in parliament since the Nazi Party in 1945.

The lower house meeting on Tuesday under the dome of Berlin’s Reichstag building is Germany’s biggest yet, with 709 lawmakers.

It has six caucuses, among them the 92 lawmakers from Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

Lawmakers are expected to elect outgoing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc, as the new speaker.

First battle

They are also due to elect six deputy speakers from the various parties, who are traditionally approved with cross-party support.

A clash between AfD and others is likely over its nominee, Albrecht Glaser, who has called Islam a political ideology rather than a religion, and said Muslims should not have the right to freedom of religion as Islam did not respect that freedom.

The AfD won seats in the national parliament for the first time in the Sept. 24 ballot, hurting Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and leaving her with little choice but to try to forge a three-way coalition.

At Tuesday’s session of the lower parliamentary house, Schaeuble can count on broad support for his appointment as Bundestag president, or speaker.

Lawmakers will then vote on six vice presidents—one from each party group.

The Social Democrats, Greens, the probusiness Free Democrats and the radical Left Party have spoken out against Glaser’s nomination.

Freedom of religion

Andrea Nahles, leader of the Social Democrats in parliament, said Glaser had failed to correct his comments about Islam, which violated Germany’s right to freedom of religion, and dismissed his offer of dialogue as “antics.”

Glaser would not embody the values of the Constitution in the way required of a parliamentary vice president, Nahles said.

On Monday, Greens coleader Katrin Goering-Eckhardt said, “If one wants to be a Bundestag vice president, then one must respect the Constitution, and that includes freedom of religion.”

Senior members of Merkel’s conservative bloc have also said they would not support Glaser, though the party’s lawmakers would be free to choose how they vote.—

AFP NOTO RACISM Germans demonstrate in front of the Reichstag building that houses the lower house of parliament as the rightist Alternative fuer Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) made its parliamentary debut on Tuesday.—