(Bloomberg) -- Germany's nationalist AfD party claimed the chairmanship of parliament's budget committee and named a euro-skeptic to head the key panel in the Bundestag.
Peter Boehringer, 48, was nominated by his Alternative for Germany's caucus on Tuesday in keeping with a tradition that the biggest opposition party heads the committee, which has the power of the purse and a say in Germany's euro-area policy, according to an emailed AfD statement.
Boehringer, a businessman who decries paper currencies not backed by precious metal, calls for Germany's “immediate exit from the illegal euro transfer union,” according to his website. Bailout policies to aid indebted euro-area countries violate European Union treaties, he says.
Where Is Germany's Gold? A previous story featuring Boehringer
Founded as an anti-euro grouping in 2013, the AfD last year became the first far-right party to win seats in the federal parliament since the 1950s on a platform opposing mass migration to Germany. If Chancellor Angela Merkel succeeds in renewing her governing alliance with the Social Democrats, the AfD will form the main opposition caucus.
Earlier: Merkel Coalition Is Said to Oppose AfD Chairing Budget Committee
A publicist and asset manager from Bavaria, Boehringer is one of 92 AfD lawmakers elected in September to the Bundestag, or lower house. Among his political goals, he cites the “urgent end to the permanent, centrally planned, trillion-euro ongoing ‘rescues'.”
He also calls for the “immediate end to the mass, illegal and existentially threatening Islamic ‘migration' to Europe.” The AfD's election platform advocated closing the border and called Germany's increasing Muslim population “a great danger to our state.”
In 2012, Boehringer, head of a firm investing his and clients' money in gold, silver, and mining stocks, began a campaign to return all of the gold reserves of Germany's central bank to Frankfurt from overseas. The Bundesbank gold transfer is also among the AfD's positions.
To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
