Bernd Baumann of the AfD, seen on October 24, 2017, said his party was pleased to take over the budget, tourism and legal affairs committees in the German parliament | John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images AfD to lead Bundestag’s budget committee The far-right party will also be in charge of the German parliament’s legal affairs and tourism bodies.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) confirmed on Tuesday it will take over the leadership of the budget, tourism and legal affairs committees in the German parliament.

AfD Parliamentary Secretary Bernd Baumann said in a Facebook post that his party was delighted "to receive these important committees as the strongest parliamentary opposition."

If Angela Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU bloc manages to form a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), the AfD will become the largest opposition party in the Bundestag. The budget committee — often referred to as the "royal committee" by German media — traditionally falls in the hands of the strongest opposition group.

Baumann pointed out that the legal affairs committee would oversee issues related to Germany's so-called hate speech law, which threatens social media companies with a fine of up to €50 million if they do not remove illegal content promptly. The AfD has been a vocal critic of the law, calling it censorship, especially after two of its leading members were blocked on Twitter for their posts.

Merkel's conservative alliance will take over eight of the 23 total committees, among them the ones for foreign affairs, Europe, interior affairs, agriculture as well as economic cooperation and development, a CDU/CSU spokesperson confirmed. The SPD will be responsible for employment and social affairs, defense, education, culture and sports.

Depending on the outcome of the coalition talks between the SPD and CDU/CSU bloc, the distribution of the committees could change, according to Spiegel.