And the arrival of MPs from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) — which came third in last month’s election — will fundamentally change the tone of debates. “The question at stake is what will this do to the discourse,” said Sophie Schönberger, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Konstanz. “What are the limits of what can be said inside a parliament?”

The bloated size of the Bundestag will significantly complicate day-to-day work, as “the more diverse and the larger a parliament is, the more difficult it is to control the government and to do parliamentary work,” Schönberger cautioned.

The Bundestag will also have a new man in charge — outgoing Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble will be elected its president. The parliament’s longest serving member (he was first elected in 1972), Schäuble has been hand-picked by Chancellor Angela Merkel to manage the unwieldy assembly and keep the AfD in line.

But with 92 members of parliament, the populists known for their anti-immigration and anti-Muslim rhetoric are determined to make their mark. “Of course, we will change the topics of the debates,” said a high-ranking AfD member of the Bundestag, speaking on the condition of anonymity.