Germany could elect AfD as first far-right party to lead a state since Second World War, exit poll shows

Germany could elect AfD as first far-right party to lead a state since Second World War, exit poll shows Exit polls show the AfD is set to top the knife-edge vote in Saxony-Anhalt with 44.5% - putting the 'right-wing extremist' party within reach of a historic victory in Germany A far-right party could take power in a state in Germany for the first time since World War II, exit polls show. Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) is projected to top the polls in Saxony-Anhalt with 44.5% of the vote - well ahead of the ruling conservative CDU in second place, which is on 18.5%. It would double the party's vote five years ago in the region of 2.1 million, and follows warnings in the lead-up to the vote that a long-standing firewall against extreme right parties in Germany could be about to be broken. Votes will be counted overnight, and it remains unclear whether the AfD will win enough votes to secure an absolute majority in the state legislature, allowing it to govern on its own. A 44.5% result could see them form a majority if enough smaller parties fall short of the 5% threshold required to take seats in parliament. Senior party officials said the initial results showed it has won a "mandate" to govern. Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD's 35-year-old candidate for state governor, announced during the regional election campaign that his party would remove refugee children and disabled children from mainstream education and place them into segregated classes after claiming that the "inclusion experiment" in schools has failed. The AfD is classed as a "proven right-wing extremist" by the the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), Germany's equivalent to the MI5. Mr Siegmund told reporters after the release of the exit poll that the party had "written history." Suggesting other parties should be open to coalition talks with his party, he said: "As a democrat, I always extend a hand to other parties. "We're not concerned with firewalls. We're concerned with Germany." AfD's national leader, Alice Weidel, told German broadcaster ZDF: "This is a historic result, and it is a very clear mandate to govern," The result piles pressure on German chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose CDU party has led the state for 24 years and regarded it as one of their natural strongholds. Mr Siegmund described Merz as the party's "most important campaign helper" during the election campaign. Germany's Minister of the Chancellery, Nina Warken, said the result was a "watershed moment" for the CDU and a "very, very difficult result." In the exit poll, the centre-left SPD had slipped by half a point to 8%, while the Left Party secured 9.5%. The Greens were the only other party to make gains, climbing three points to reach 9%, while the left-wing BSW was on exactly 5% - leaving them with an anxious wait to see whether they reached the vital threshold.