In Sunday's regional election in Thuringia and Saxony, eastern Germany, exit polls showed that the Alternative für Deutchland (AfD) party received 33.5% and 30.5% of the votes. It's the first time that a state election in Germany has been won by an extreme right party since World War II.
The AfD's triumph is a severe setback for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government, as it received close to one-third of the vote, nine points ahead of the conservative CDU and considerably ahead of Germany's three ruling parties.