German hard-right AfD set to win state election

Germany’s anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) is celebrating a “historic success“, with a big victory for the far-right party in the eastern state of Thuringia. The AfD won almost a third of the vote, nine points ahead of the conservative CDU, and far in front of Germany’s three governing parties. The result gives the far right its first win in a state parliament election since World War Two, although it has little hope of forming a government in Thuringia because other parties are unlikely to work with it. The AfD came a close second in Sunday’s other big state election, in the more populous neighbouring state of Saxony. Results there gave the CDU 31.9% of the vote, just ahead of the AfD, again far ahead of the three parties running the national government - the Social Democrats, Greens and liberal FDP. Read the best of our journalism: Subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times YouTube channel: