Germany’s far-right AfD won a landmark first regional vote on Sunday in the former East German state of Thuringia, exit polls showed, in a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz ahead of national elections in 2025.
The AfD took between 30.5 and 33.5 percent of the vote in Thuringia, according to exit polls, with the conservative CDU in second place at around 24.5 percent.
The AfD was also neck-and-neck with the CDU for first place in the neighbouring state of Saxony, which also held a regional election on Sunday, the polls showed.
The AfD is unlikely to come to power in either state because other parties have ruled out working with the far right to form a government.
But the result is still a political earthquake as it would represent the first time in Germany’s post-World War II history that a far-right party has won a state election.
If confirmed, it would also be a huge blow for Scholz’s Social Democrats and the other parties in his fractious coalition government, the Greens and the liberal FDP.
The SPD looked to have scored between 6.5 and 7 percent in Thuringia, and between 7.5 and 8.5 percent in Saxony.
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