German parties reject far-right's candidate for parliamentary post

BERLIN – Almost all of Germany's main parties said they would reject the far-fight AfD movement's choice for parliamentary vice-president, highlighting its political isolation despite its strong showing in elections.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party swept into the Bundestag lower house of parliament with 12.6 percent of the vote last month, making it the first far-right organization to win seats there since the 1950s—and the third largest parliamentary group.

All blocs represented in the Bundestag are entitled to have their own vice president of the parliament, who chairs sessions, sets the agenda and call MPs to order where necessary. But the candidates need to be approved by a simple majority of all sitting lawmakers.

Four out of five of AfD's rival blocs in parliament spoke out against the AfD's choice of Albrecht Glaser—a 75-year-old who has called Islam a political ideology rather than a religion, and said it is impossible to differentiate between Muslims and Islamists.