Elections in Germany Could Produce First Far-Right State Government Since Nazi Era: What to Know

NEW: Germans vote in Saxony-Anhalt today, where the far-right AfD is favoured to win and could form the first far-right state government since the Nazi era.

Germany could get its first far-right state government since the Nazi era today.

Voters in Saxony-Anhalt are at the polls right now, and the Alternative for Germany, the AfD, goes in as the favourite. This is the eastern state around Magdeburg, and for years the AfD has been strongest exactly here, in the former East.

These are the people who could be running a German state by tonight. Every other party has spent years refusing to work with them, a wall the Germans call the firewall. Winning the most votes is one thing. Finding partners to actually govern is another, and that is where this gets hard.

But here is the weight of it. Since 1945, no far-right party has led a state government in Germany. Not one, in eighty one years. Tonight, that streak is genuinely on the ballot.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.