Breakthrough for Germany’s far right in state elections

Bjorn Hocke (AfD) after the publication of the first forecasts for the state election in Saxony and Thuringia (Michael Kappeler/AP)

The far-right Alternative for Germany won a state election for the first time  in the country’s east, and was set to finish at least a very close second to mainstream conservatives in a second vote, projections showed.

A new party founded by a prominent leftist also made an immediate impact, while the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular national government obtained extremely weak results.