Political Affairs - Parliamentary laws and requests for order - final legislative session approaching.
During these recent years, the Thuringian state parliament experienced quite some turmoil with a red-red-green coalition always being challenged by the opposition from the CDU, AfD, and FDP. Despite the frequent heated debates and controversial discussions, the number of orders for deputies, usually issued for cases involving coarse insults or slurs, was actually lower than in the past 20 years, based on statistics presented by the parliamentary administration to dpa.
However, the parliament experienced a record high number of bill proposals throughout its sessions. The state parliament's final session before the upcoming election on September 1st is set to take place.
The parliamentarians were given orders a total 39 times during the plenary meetings since the last state election in 2019. The number of such orders, which are usually employed to penalize harsh insults or slurs, has shown significant fluctuations since reunification. The highest number of orders, 132, were recorded during the first 5 years following the start of the red-red-green coalition in 2014. In all other years, the number of orders ranged between 34 and 96.
"These past five years have been challenging for both Thuringia and the parliament, as they had to make decisions under difficult circumstances," said the parliament's President, Birgit Pommer. She highlighted the impressive statistics of the legislative period, including 141 plenary sessions, 4 investigative committees, 10,213 requests, and 271 bills in total, out of which 146 were passed.
Pommer began the legislative period with two elections for the Prime Minister. First, Thomas Kemmerich, a Liberal, was elected as a temporary government leader with votes from the AfD, CDU, and FDP. Then, Minister President Bodo Ramelow, from the Left, was elected as the head of a minority government representing the Left, SPD, and Greens. Additionally, the legislative period took place during the pandemic crisis which brought about significant challenges. Pommer remarked, "This period ends in uncertain times, characterized by war, terror, and escalating violence in Germany as well."
A remarkable record was set by the five factions and the FDP's parliamentary group with regards to the number of bill proposals. Previously, there were between 162 and 268 bill proposals during each legislative period. Strikingly, only 146 of the 271 presented bills were passed, reflecting the complex and strained majority relationships. In contrast, between 134 and 188 laws were enacted in the previous legislative periods.
