(AFP) Germany’s far-right AfD party surged in elections in two ex-communist eastern states Sunday, reflecting anger over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s migrant policy and a wealth gap 30 years after the Berlin Wall fell.
The Alternative for Germany became the second-strongest party in regional parliaments in both Saxony and Brandenburg, the state which surrounds the capital Berlin, said public television exit polls.
In Saxony, where the radical anti-Islam Pegida street movement was born, the AfD scored 28 percent, sharply up from 9.7 percent five years ago, broadcasters ARD and ZDF forecast.
And it won 24 percent in Brandenburg state, double its result in 2014, said the initial projections.
