German elections live: Far right leads in Thuringia exit poll, centre-right ahead in Saxony | Germany

The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has taken a narrow lead in Saxony, with the far right Alternative für Deutschland following closely in second place, according to the first exit polls.

Saxony ZDF exit poll

Christian Democratic Union (CDU): 32%

Alternative für Deutschland (AfD): 31.5%

Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW): 11.5%

Social Democratic party (SPD): 7.5%

Die Linke: 4.5%

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has taken the lead in the first exit polls in Thuringia.

Thuringia ZDF exit poll

Alternative für Deutschland (AfD): 33.5%

Christian Democratic Union (CDU): 24.5%

Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW): 14.5%

Die Linke: 11.5%

Social Democratic party (SPD): 6.5%

A former high-profile member of the far-left party Die Linke, Wagenknecht this year founded the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).

Wagenknecht was born in the former East Germany to an Iranian father and German mother. Her party is now on track to emerge as a kingmaker in today’s state elections in Thuringia and Saxony.

She has denounced “unchecked migration”, pledged to provide higher pensions and said she would seek to end military support for Ukraine.

On Thursday, days ahead of the elections, she was sprayed with pink paint while campaigning in Thuringia.

Deborah Cole

Three state elections in Germany this month are imposing a stress test on the country’s democracy, with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party and a new populist leftist-conservative force expected to perform exceedingly well in the aftermath of a deadly stabbing attack, allegedly by a Syrian asylum seeker.

Today, voters are going to the polls in Saxony and Thuringia.

Brandenburg, the rural region surrounding Berlin, votes on 22 September.

In both regions, the AfD chapter has been deemed “confirmed rightwing extremist” by domestic security authorities, and the remaining parties have vowed to keep it out of power with a democratic “firewall” by refusing cooperation.

The campaign has included the remarkable rise of an eight-month-old party built around a veteran far-left firebrand, the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance).

Its blend of scepticism about migration, opposition to Nato, backing for high taxes on the rich and resistance to military aid for Ukraine has struck a chord with the electorate.

Given the complex maths of coalition-building in a fractured political landscape, polls indicate the BSW could find itself in the role of kingmaker in any of the three states.

Read the full story here.

Ahead of today’s elections, polls put the far right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in the lead in Thuringia and the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with a narrow lead in Saxony.

Nerves rise over AfD threat as two states in eastern Germany go to the polls

Deborah Cole

Voters in two eastern German states are going 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.

The results in Saxony and Thuringia, due this 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.

The anti-migration, anti-Islam AfD spent the last week of its campaign hammering home the message that the government is “failing” its citizens, while harnessing shock and outrage over the deadly mass stabbing in the western city of Solingen allegedly by a Syrian rejected asylum seeker.

Read the full story here.

Who is Björn Höcke?

Deborah Cole

The most feared man in German politics cleared his throat and took a sip of water as his audience hushed in anticipation, their mobile phones aloft and set to record. “I’ve got to protect my voice for my first speech as state premier,” Björn Höcke said with a grin. The crowd went wild.

Höcke, 52, co-heads the state chapter of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Thuringia, which is voting today along with Saxony.

He has belonged to the AfD since it was launched in 2013 as a Eurosceptic party and is seen as the driving force of its ever-stronger embrace of radical anti-migrant, anti-Islam sentiment, as he calls into question the foundations of Germany’s democratic order and postwar penance for the Holocaust.

It is the performance of his state that will be watched most closely in Germany, which has long prided itself on consensus-oriented politics and having learned the lessons of the Nazi past, when the results trickle in on election night.

On a small square framed by communist-era housing blocks, about 800 people appeared rapt as Höcke railed against the government in Berlin and the justice authorities who had repeatedly filed charges against him for incitement. Höcke, who grew up in West Germany, mockingly calls the constitutional protection office the “Stasi”.

He had supporters in thrall to him when he intoned the key talking point of the movement, that the centre-left-led government in Berlin wants to “do away with you, the German people” and “replace you with a multicultural society”.

Read the full story here.

Good evening and welcome to a special edition of the Europe blog, looking at today’s elections in two eastern German states: Thuringia and Saxony.

Send tips and comments to lili.bayer@theguardian.com.