BERLIN, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The far-right Alternative for Germany's (AfD) nomination, Albrecht Glaser, for the role of vice-president of the Federal Parliament has met with heavy opposition from other German parties on Monday.
Every party represented in the German parliament has a right to nominate a vice-president for the assembly under German law. But the candidate must be confirmed by a simple majority of delegates.
The AfD, which secured 12.6 percent of the vote in Sept. 24 general elections and won parliament seats for the first time, would rely on support from other parties to successfully install Glaser in the post.
Senior parliamentary delegates from the German Social Democrats (SPD), Free Democratic Party (FDP), Greens (Gruene) and Left party announced in the newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" that they would not lend their votes to Glaser, citing religiously-incendiary comments made by the AfD politician.
Glaser openly questions German Muslims' constitutional right to freedom of religion. He has repeatedly argued in public that Islam constitutes a political ideology, rather than a religion, and claimed that it is therefore impossible to differentiate between Muslims and Islamists.
For Greens leader Cem Oezdemir, Glaser had "disqualified himself" by questioning the freedom of individuals to practice a faith of their choosing.
According to Oezdemir, a suitable candidate for the position of vice-president of the Federal Parliament had to embrace the German constitution.
Similarly, FDP parliamentary faction chairman Marco Buschmann signalized his rejection of Glaser on account of his controversial statements. Buschmann noted that it was the responsibility of each parliamentary faction to nominate candidates capable of securing a majority from delegates.
Left party parliamentary faction leader Dietmar Bartsch also told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" that he had already decided not to vote for Glaser.
SPD parliamentary faction chairman Carsten Schneider said that potential candidates for the vice-presidential position in parliament "naturally" had to respect the constitution and the rights it granted to citizens.
A spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary bloc told Xinhua that they would "wait and see" if the AfD actually nominated Glaser before discussing further steps.
The AfD was fast to respond to criticism from other parties, with faction leader Alexander Gauland describing the accusations against Glaser as "absurd". "Of course we support Glaser as our candidate," Gauland told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Questioned again amidst growing opposition in the course of Monday, Gauland reiterated this position and added that everyone in the AfD shared Glaser's perspective on Muslims. "We all share Glaser's assessment," Gauland said.
Gauland did not offer a potential solution to the personnel dispute, noting merely that it was "too early" to consider nominating an alternative candidate as a compromise.
The still unfolding spat between the AfD and other parties raises fresh questions over whether the party will succeed in constructively shaping German politics after entering the country's Federal Parliament for the first time.
Several rival factions are currently discussing in how far AfD delegates should be admitted to sensitive parliamentary committees such as the parliamentarian control board which supervises German intelligence services.
Representatives of the SPD, Left Party and Greens told the newspaper "Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger" on Monday that they would not necessarily accept AfD nominees for these committees.
The AfD would be "well-advised" not to nominate its most controversial figures for such posts if they did not want to risk failing to secure the necessary parliamentary majorities, SPD interior speaker Burkhard Lischka warned.
