Lawmakers in Germany's Thuringia convene for first time since election

The new state parliament in the central German state of Thuringia convened for the first time on Thursday following elections in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) made historic gains.

Initial sessions are expected to be turbulent, as the AfD has vowed to enforce its new-found prerogatives as the largest single party with more than a third of the total seats.

But the other parties in the Thuringian parliament - the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), the hard-left Die Linke (The Left) and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) - have all vowed to block the AfD.

Mainstream political parties in Germany have insisted on a so-called firewall against the far right, with each vowing not to form coalitions or otherwise cooperate with the AfD.

The AfD plans to put forward Wiebke Muhsal for president of the state parliament. The other parties have dismissed her nomination as a mere provocation, pointing in part to a past conviction for fraud.

The CDU, which finished second to the AfD in the September 1 election, plans to nominate Thadäus König for the post.

The CDU is still locked in tough negotiations with the BSW and SPD over how to form a new coalition government.

That coalition is one seat short of the necessary majority.

But the CDU, which has a long history of staunch anti-communism dating back to the Cold War, has so far also ruled out any coalition with Die Linke.

That stance is anchored in national CDU party policy, but leaves a difficult puzzle to solve in Thuringia.