Alternative for Germany lawmaker elected chair of key budget committee

A lawmaker from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) who has criticized eurozone rescues and the ECB has been chosen as the chair of the parliament’s influential budget committee. The top job is nicknamed the ‘King’s Committee’ due to its power in scrutinizing government ministries’ budgets, and it is traditionally reserved for the largest opposition party. That is set to be the Euroskeptic, anti-immigrant AfD as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) negotiate a new coalition. On Wednesday, the committee voted to accept AfD candidate Peter Boehringer, who rose to prominence by campaigning for the repatriation of Germany’s gold reserves from overseas, Reuters reports. He has also called for an “immediate end to mass illegal Islamic migration to Europe that threatens our existence.”