Anxiety mounts over AfD threat as state elections kick off in Eastern Germany

Voters in two eastern German states are about to go to the polls in elections that could see the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party score its first wins at the regional level and a separate new populist force on the left establish a firm foothold.

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The results in Saxony and Thuringia, due on Sunday evening, are expected to be disastrous for the three ruling parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left-led coalition government in Berlin, one year before Germany holds its next general election.

Many eastern voters say they are increasingly disillusioned with mainstream politics more than three decades after national reunification, with the lingering impact of structural decline, depopulation and lagging economic performance compounding a sense that they are still second-class citizens.