German far-right party could win its first state in eastern regional elections

Germans were voting in two eastern states on Sunday, with the far-right AfD on track to win a state election for the first time and Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition set to receive a drubbing just a year before federal elections.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling first on 30% in Thuringia and is neck-and-neck with the conservatives in Saxony on 30-32%. A win would mark the first time a far-right party has the most seats in a German state parliament since World War Two.

The 11-year-old party would be unlikely to be able to form a state government even if it does win, as it is polling short of a majority and other parties refuse to collaborate with it.

But a strong showing for the AfD and another populist party, the newly-created Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), named after its founder, a former communist, would complicate coalition building.

"I just hope that we get a coalition that is democratic and not right-wing at the end," said Naila Kiesel after casting her ballot in the city of Jena in Thuringia.

Polls close at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), when the first exit surveys will be published.

Both the AfD and BSW are anti-migration, eurosceptic, Russia-friendly and are particularly strong in the former Communist-run East, where concerns about a cost of living crisis, the Ukraine war and immigration run deep.

A deadly stabbing spree linked to Islamic State 10 days ago in the western German city of Solingen stoked concerns about immigration in particular and criticism of the government's handling of the issue.

"Our freedoms are being increasingly restricted because people are being allowed into the country who don't fit in," the AfD's leader in Thuringia, Bjoern Hoecke, told a campaign event in Nordhausen on Thursday.

Th