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.

The Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz have won an election in the eastern German state of Brandenburg. They gained a narrow edge over a growing far-right party.

The SPD, which has governed the state surrounding the capital Berlin since reunification in 1990, scored 30.9% of the vote, ahead of the far-right Alternative for Germany on 29.2%, according to provisional official results.