Nationalist party advances as Angela Merkel loses ground in German states vote

A nationalist party has powered into three German state legislatures in elections overshadowed by Europe's migration crisis, an exit poll suggests.

The ARD television exit poll showed Alternative for Germany, or AfD, winning 12.5% of the vote in Baden-Wuerttemberg state, 11 in Rhineland-Palatinate and 23 in Saxony-Anhalt, a relatively poor eastern region.