Chaotic scenes in Thuringia

Erfurt, state capital of Thuringia, is pretty. Well worth a visit in my opinion. Photo by Ghaith Kelani on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

These are indeed interesting times in German politics.

On Thursday, Thuringia’s state parliament held its first sitting after the AfD won the most seats at the state election on September 1st, the first time they had ever achieved such a feat.

The point of the opening sitting of a state parliament is to elect a new speaker (Parlamentspräsident), whose role it is to adjudicate in debates and ensure that lawmakers stick to house rules. The speaker also has powers to decide whether prosecutors are allowed to carry out searches in the premises.

Suffice to say, it is a position with a lot of responsibility. And traditionally it goes to the party with the largest faction.

But the other four parties in the parliament (CDU, SPD, BSW and Linke) are loath to give it to the AfD, a party whom the state intelligence service have classified as extremist.

Blocking the AfD from na…