America News Agency

In two closely watched elections in the former East Germany, voters made clear their dissatisfaction with Germany's mainstream political parties, with preliminary results placing the AFD in first place in Thuringia with 32.8% of the vote and in second place in Saxony with 30.6 percent.

Scholz described the results as “bitter” and “worrying”.

“Our country cannot and must not get used to this. The AfD is damaging Germany. It is weakening the economy, dividing society and damaging our country's reputation,” Scholz said, adding that the dire predictions that the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) could fall from a state parliament for the first time had not come true.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said: “This is a historic success for us. We have become the strongest force in a state election for the first time. This is an elegy for the coalition in Berlin.”

The 11-year-old AfD won its first mayoral and district government posts last year but has never joined a state government. The remaining democratic parties have vowed to keep it out of power by creating a “firewall” against working with the AfD.

The results in Saxony and Thuringia have been disastrous for the three ruling parties in Scholz's center-left-led federal government. A year before Germany's next general election, they have reached single-digit vote shares in both states.