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.

STORY: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appears to have fended off a far right victory in his home state on Sunday.Early exit polls showed Sholz's Social Democrats (SDP) scored almost 31% of the vote in the Brandburg state election over Alternative for Germany (AfD),

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.