Already classified as “extremist” by the domestic intelligence agency, the anti-immigrant populist party in Thuringia is now staging a prepared political scandal that bodes ill for democracy in Germany.

The eastern German state of Thuringia is far away from Berlin and its federal politics, so it’s not considered a major state in terms of political importance. With just 1.7 million people, it has less than half as many eligible voters as the German capital.

But it wasn’t always that way: The Weimar Republic, considered the first German democracy, was founded in the Thuringian city of Weimar. Culturally speaking, the state was also no lightweight: Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German here, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller made Weimar the center of German literature and philosophy, and the world-famous Bauhaus architecture was also founded in Thuringia.

Nazi-era slogans, extremists under surveillance

In 2024, however, the whole of Germany is looking at Thuringia with concern. For the first time since 1945 — the end of the most disastrous chapter in German history, the rule of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists (Nazis) — a right-wing extremist party received the most votes in state elections here: the Alternative for Germany (AfD). On September 1, the party achieved a record 32.8 percent of the vote in state elections.

The results were anything but surprising. For months beforehand, constitutional lawyers, political scientists, local clubs, unions, business associations and churches warned of the consequences of an AfD election victory. In countless speeches and writings, top AfD officials have denigrated democratic institutions. Political competitors are insulted as “cartel parties” and German democracy is defamed as a “new dictatorship.” The AfD portrays the independent judiciary as the lackey of politics, has declared the destruction of competing parties as its goal, and is fighting for the deportation of millions of immigrants and people with international background.

And its top officials repeatedly flirt with the Nazi terror regime: A leading party member posed with his hand on his heart in front of Hitler’s bunker, an AfD politician relativized the crimes of the mass-murdering SS paramilitary, an AfD parliamentarian called himself “the friendly face of National Socialism,” a party official sent out Hitler pictures.

One of the AfD’s most influential politicians, Björn Höcke, serves as Thuringia’s AfD state chairman. Höcke has used the slogan of Hitler’s brownshirts SA division, “Everything for Germany!” to round off election campaign speeches. He has twice been found guilty of deliberately using the illegal slogans and sentenced at court to pay heavy fines as a result. The entire state branch of the AfD party has been classified by German domestic intelligence as “extremist,” and has been under surveillance since.

A landmark day in postwar German history

On Thursday, the freshly-elected state parliament convened in Thuringia’s capital, Erfurt – with the AfD as its strongest parliamentary group. The AfD thus served as the “master of ceremonies of democracy;” and because the oldest member of the state parliament is within the party’s ranks, it provided the parliament’s “chairperson by seniority.”

The first parliamentary session is packed with well-practiced democratic rituals: parliament convenes, establishes its quorum, and elects a parliamentary president so that parliamentary work can begin.

But before the procedures began, 73-year-old AfD chairman-by-seniority, Jürgen Treutler, delivered a speech in which he spoke of the “contempt of the people” by an “elite.” And he favorably quoted the nationalist and antisemitic educator Eduard Spranger as one of the “more important German thinkers.” Spranger ensured that Jews were excluded from the Goethe Society literary group in 1938, and defended the development of Nazi society under Hitler. After Treutler finished his scripted speech, a spectacle that constitutional experts had forewarned of began: the AfD attempted to take control of the parliament’s rules of procedure, using its chairman-by-seniority to paralyze parliament during the next step: electing the parliament president.

In Germany, the office of state parliament president is traditionally given to the strongest parliamentary group; the office is not considered important, and the rules to elect the president are somewhat open to interpretation. However, the person who holds that position controls all parliamentary procedures. They can also assign important staff positions in the parliamentary administration. So, the AfD, classified by German domestic intelligence as “definitely right-wing extremist,” wanted to appoint the president, because it is the strongest parliamentary group. Despite a strong state election result, the AfD is not even close to having a parliamentary majority. All other parliamentary parties thus tried to hinder the election of parliament president. The AfD, in turn, then tried to block their effort.

Parliamentary leaders repeatedly held consultations during the chaotic scenes of the opening day of session
© Martin Schutt/dpa/picture alliance

In addition, at this point in the process, a new parliament does not yet have a quorum, leading to scenes of chaos and drama.

From the start of the session, the new chairman-by-seniority refused motions from the other parties. The mood immediately flared. The CDU called it a “power grab” because the “sacred right” of MPs to organize themselves was being denied, and because the AfD – a minority party – was sabotaging the majority opinion in parliament.

The session saw repeated interruptions and hours-long discussions between the parliamentary group leaders at the chairman’s desk. How to proceed? 73-year-old Treutler clung to his speech manuscript. He mostly seemed not to be listening while the director of Parliament, Jörg Hopfe, explained the legal intricacies to the parliamentarians.

While the AfD chairman continued to read from his manuscript, the parliament director interrupted him several times. The director, Hopfe, is a lawyer, a renowned expert on Thuringian parliamentary and constitutional law, and a 33-year veteran of parliamentary administration. He approached the chairman’s podium repeatedly, pointing out alleged procedural errors. When the AfD politician shouted: “Don’t interrupt me!” Hopfe replied: “That’s a breach of the constitution!” Treutler continued unperturbed. It all amounted to an unprecedented procedure.

Legal expert Jörg Hopfe tried several times to explain to AfD’s Jürgen Treutler the parliamentary procedures, but was repeatedly dismissed
© Bodo Schackow/dpa/picture alliance

Renewed calls for ban of AfD

After hours of skirmishes and interruptions, the first plenary day ended with no result. Now the Thuringian Constitutional Court will have to decide how to proceed. That first session seemed to confirm what the AfD has insisted, albeit for different reasons: the democratic establishment cannot work constructively.

Although the Thuringian constitutional judges have not yet made their ruling, numerous legal experts believe the chairman and AfD politician far exceeded his authority and acted inappropriately.

At the conclusion of that chaotic first parliamentary session, the acting Thuringian Interior Minister, Social Democrat Georg Maier, spoke out on the platform X, formerly Twitter. He once again called for Germany to ban the AfD outright: “Today’s events in the Thuringian state parliament have shown that the AfD is aggressively combating parliamentarianism. I think that the prerequisites for a ban procedure have been met.”