AfD calls its performance in Brandenburg ‘huge success’ but Social Democratic party projected to take the lead. Summary of the evening 20:08 Germany’s Social Democratic party (SPD) appears to have narrowly won an election in the state of Brandenburg,

Brandenburg is a longstanding stronghold for the party. But it is located in Germany’s relatively impoverished east, where the anti-immigrant A f D performs far better than in the west. That made this election a test of whether the SPD could beat the populists on its home ground.

Germans in the state of Brandenburg were voting in a regional election on Sunday with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) expected to finish first, building on successes in other eastern states and beating Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats in one of their traditional strongholds.