German Bundestag holds record session

Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has broken its own sitting-length record for the current legislative period.

The plenary session that began at 9 am (0800 GMT) on Thursday did not end until 1:42 am on Friday, when the vice president of the Bundestag, Omid Nouripour, finally brought it to a close.

The previous record, set in June, had seen the session wrap up at 12:29 am.

Thursday’s sitting was prolonged when the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) questioned around midnight whether parliament still had a quorum. For the Bundestag to be considered quorate, more than half of its 630 members must be present.

In the roll-call vote on the Veterinary Medicinal Products Act that followed, the required minimum was reached. But the interruption during the vote pushed lawmakers’ end of day even further into the night.