In chaos the first meeting of Thuringia’s new parliament after the September 1 election ended due to the behavior of Alternative for Germany (AfD) presiding MP Jürgen Treutler.

The Christian Democratic Party (CDU) appealed to the Constitutional Court, alleging unconstitutional behavior, while the state’s outgoing interior minister said the conditions were now met to start a process to ban the AfD at the federal level.

In accordance with the parliamentary tradition of its parliament Thuringiathe right to first propose a candidate for president of the body belongs to the party that emerged first in the elections.

If he fails to be elected, the process is repeated and, if he is again fruitless, in the third vote the remaining parties have the right to submit a proposal, which, however, considered that the principle of the majority was violated when the president refused to allow deputies to receive the reason or put to a vote the request to change the procedure, which, it is clarified, is not mandatory. In addition, the parties were concerned that the president would not allow new nominations even in the third ballot, but would continue indefinitely with different candidates from the AfD. Chaos ensued in the chamber, with MPs exchanging harsh words, with AfD leader Björn Hecke verbally attacking MPs from other parties and denouncing a “cartel” against his party. Indicative of the prevailing atmosphere, it was not even possible to ascertain whether the body had a quorum, while, according to the director of parliament, the speaker acted as the elected president of parliament, which he is not entitled to.

The CDU has appealed to the Constitutional Court of Thuringia denouncing the behavior of Mr. Treutler and the AfD MPs as a whole as unconstitutional, while the state’s Interior Minister Georg Mayer (SPD) has favored a process to ban the party. “Events have shown that the AfD is taking aggressive, militant action against parliamentarism. I think the conditions are met for a ban process,” Mr. Mayer wrote on the “X” (formerly Twitter) platform. According to Jena University Constitutional Law professor Michael Brenner, the presiding judge “not only exceeded his powers, but also violated the rights of the parliamentarians”.

However, on the part of the federal government, the government spokesman Stephen Hebstreit admitted that the images from the parliament in Erfurt “preoccupy and disturb many”, however he refrained from taking a position on the possibility of a process to ban the AfD and limited himself to stating that it is currently being undertaken the state Constitutional Court, while the ban procedure by the Federal Constitutional Court must be a last resort.