Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats held off the far-right Alternative for Germany and look set to cling on to power in the eastern state of Brandenburg, sparing the chancellor and his party another embarrassing electoral setback.

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.

The premier of the eastern German state of Brandenburg, Dietmar Woidke, has described the performance of his centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in Sunday's state elections as a great success. "We have made up ground like never before in the history of our state,

Projections based on initial election results in the eastern German state of Brandenburg give the incumbent centre-left Social Democrats a narrow lead over the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).