Saxony-Anhalt: This is how the first session in the AfD-led state parliament in Magdeburg went

Peter Maxwill, SPIEGEL editor:

»Here in the Magdeburg state parliament, directly behind me, the first session, which was held entirely under the leadership of the new AfD state parliament president, has just ended. And it ended with the result that one could have expected from the outset: the so-called peace proposal from the AfD and BSW was accepted with the votes of these two factions. Everyone else voted against it.

The big question that naturally arises after this day is how close, lasting and - in terms of structure - is the alliance between the AfD and the BSW, which jointly presented a motion in a German parliament for the first time and then got it through. But it is still the case that the BSW asserts that it does not want to elect Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD frontman, as prime minister and that it does not want to join a formal coalition. As of today, however, it is still the case that without the BSW there would be no majority for an AfD government. But Ulrich Siegmund would still like to run for it in December and then be elected Prime Minister, as he once again confirmed and emphasized today.

The fact that today's debate was so heated and emotional is not least due to the fact that the four parties that do not belong to the AfD-BSW bloc, although they are very different from one another, opposed this motion extremely resolutely and energetically and showed, also with symbols, that they do not simply want to give in to such a symbolically charged atmosphere that prevailed today. The Greens and the SPD dressed in yellow and blue, at least symbolically showing solidarity with the attacked Ukraine. But it didn't just stop with this symbol; overall, this debate was very heated. There was open malice, arguments, contradictions, lots of heckling. If this remains the case for the coming weeks and months and possibly years, it could bring with it a very tough and violent political culture in Saxony-Anhalt.