Lawmakers in Germany's Thuringia reconvene amid deadlock

Lawmakers in the central German state of Thuringia reconvened on Saturday amid a chaotic deadlock between the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and other parties.

The AfD made historic gains in September 1 regional elections in Thuringia, claiming more than a third of all seats. But every other party has refused to cooperate with the AfD and vowed to keep the far right frozen out of power.

An initial session for the state parliament on Thursday ended in bickering, as the AfD tried to assert new perogatives while the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) accused them of trying to seize power.

Lawmakers need to elect a president of the state parliament, who will run the body and hold the authority to call lawmakers into session at any time.

The AfD, as the largest party, would normally select the candidates, but other parties have vowed to block AfD politicians and have sought to change the rules to allow any party to nominate candidates for the post.

In the absence of a president, the oldest lawmaker in the body - the 73-year-old AfD politician Jürgen Treutler - has been acting in that role.

The courts sided with the CDU in a hastily filed lawsuit, ruling that Treutler must bring the proposed rule changes to a vote.

The CDU, which finished second in the September 1 election, plans to put forward Thadäus König as a consensus candidate for the job.

The CDU is also locked in difficult negotiations to form a coalition government in Thuringia. That task has been made more difficult by the CDU's refusal to work with the hard-left Die Linke (The Left) in addition to the AfD.

Together, Die Linke and the AfD hold half of the 88 seats in the state parliament, making it impossible to build the necessary majority without the cooperation of at least one of the parties.