Deputy of the Bundestag: AfD raises a more moderate candidate – political

• In the afternoon, the parliamentary groups again vote on the post of Vice President of the Bundestag, which is entitled to the AfD.
• AfD sends Mariana Harder-Kühnel into the race, a 44-year-old lawyer from Hesse.
• The previous candidate, Albrecht Glaser, did not get the necessary majority in the three rounds a little over a year ago because of Islamophobic statements.

On this Thursday afternoon, the Bundestag again votes on the post of Vice President of the Bundestag, which is entitled to the AfD. Parliamentary practice stipulates that their group, like that of the other parties, may appoint a substitute for Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU). Most of the remaining members must agree. Until now, the post is vacant because the first candidate of the AfD did not get the 335 votes needed.

Now, African MP, Mariana Harder-Kühnel, is running for office. The 44-year-old lawyer is one of the moderate members of her group politically and on tone. She does not want to be badigned to a wing.

Harder-Kühnel has been a member of the AFD since April 2013 and comes from the constituency of Hesse Main-Kinzig – Wetterau II – Schotten. She is the spokesperson of the Working Group "Family, Women, Elderly and Young People" in Parliament, as well as an alternate member of the Internal Committee. In addition, she is one of the 62 secretaries of the Bundestag.

Religious freedom for "private believers"

Unlike the previous candidate, Albrecht Glaser, Harder-Kühnel moderately comments on Islam in Germany. Glaser wanted to deprive Muslims of the fundamental right to freedom of religion because, in his opinion, Islam does not know freedom of religion, but is a political ideology – claiming that the entire world must become Islamic.

Harder-Kühnel contradicted Glaser at the beginning of November when she was presented as a candidate. "Private belief" should enjoy religious freedom, it is a right that can not be taken away from anyone, she said. She also stressed that she wanted to be vice-chair of all MPs: "I want to balance and mediate between us and the other groups".

This could improve their chances of being elected by representatives of other parties. SPD delegate Thomas Oppermann said that timethat she did not have anything negative as a secretary, she had behaved properly. His party colleague, Carsten Schneider, however, announced that his group will not vote for a candidate at AFD, so long as it does not stand out clearly from the right-wing forces. For him, the events in Chemnitz were a turning point.

Jan Korte, leftist, said that he could not imagine that Harder-Kühnel would be elected by a member of his party, given "the nationalist wing of the AfD".

Gauland defended the first candidate first

After the first election to the vice-president of the Bundestag, the AfD defended Glaser and his criticism of Islam. The group's leader, Alexander Gauland, said at the time that Glaser's view of Islam was that of the faction as a whole. Other members spoke of an "honorable candidate". The other factions saw him differently and voted three rounds with more than 540 votes against Glaser.

Once a politician failed in the election of the vice president of the Bundestag: in 2005, Lothar Bisky, president of the PDS, candidate in parliament, was not retained four times. He was criticized because of old contacts with the Stasi.

Currently, the SPD with Thomas Oppermann, the CSU with Hans-Peter Friedrich, the FDP with Wolfgang Kubicki, the left with Petra Pau and the Greens with Claudia Roth, president of the Bundestag, Schäuble. Its task is of great importance: as the representative of the Parliament and therefore of the legislature, it occupies the second most important function in the state – it formally falls to the Federal President, but reports to the Federal Chancellor and the President of the Federal Council. He should be impartial, conduct negotiations, maintain order in the house and badist in the conclusion of important contracts.

With the equipment of the press agency dpa.