GERMANY’s far-right party is set to win a historic landslide in a state election, exit polls show.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is projected gain a whopping 44.5 per cent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt.
The ultra conservative party soared past German Chancellor Frierich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who are set to take just 18.5 per cent.
The AfD – who have faced probes and accusations by Berlin for right-wing extremism – need to reach 50 per cent to control the state parliament.
If they don’t manage the threshold, it could force several mainstream parties – who have balked at the idea of the AfD in power – to make a coalition with them.
The AfD wants closer ties with Vladimir Putin and a hardline approach to immigration.
The party’s co-leader Alice Weidel hailed it as a “historic” result which had given the AfD a clear mandate to govern.
The projected results mark a political earthquake in Germany – no far-right party has won control of a state in the nation since World War Two.
Should they gain full control of local authorities, they will have power over policing, education and culture.
Saxony-Anhalt, which has a population of 2.1 million, and its AfD officials have been called “far-right extremist” by German intelligence.
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The party rejects this label.
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