Schaeuble Warns Against ‘Debasement’ in Political Discourse
- German Bundestag elects Schaeuble chief as AfD takes seats
- Merkel to govern as caretaker during talks to form coalition
Wolfgang Schaeuble, newly elected president of Germany’s lower house of parliament, warned lawmakers to dispense with “contempt and debasement” as he contends with running an institution that now includes the far-right Alternative for Germany.
The country’s longest-serving lawmaker and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fiscal enforcer for the past eight years as finance minister, Schaeuble was backed as Bundestag president by on Tuesday more than 70 percent of lawmakers as the chamber convened in Berlin for the first time since last month’s election. He’ll be tasked with preserving order amid concerns that the more than 90 newcomers from the anti-immigration party may upend parliamentary routine, as they have in state legislatures across the country.