Far-right gains in local elections in central German Thuringia
Local election results in the central German state of Thuringia showed gains for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on district and city councils, but no major breakthroughs.
In Thuringia, 13 district administrators and 94 local mayors were elected on Sunday. Hundreds of local councils were also replaced.
The AfD, whose state-level party in Thuringia is considered particularly far-right, did not win the first round of the district administrator elections - but could become the strongest force in some of the district councils.
The Thuringian AfD is being monitored as a known right-wing extremist group by the state's domestic security service and the state-level AfD's firebrand leader, Björn Höcke, was recently convicted in court for knowingly using a banned Nazi slogan.
AfD candidates remain in the running for nine top municipal offices in run-off elections in two weeks. However, according to the results so far, an AfD candidate only appears to be leading in one district, Altenburger Land.
According to interim results, the AfD appears to be challenging the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), which has been the strongest political force in the state, which used to be part of the former East Germany.
Initial election results suggest the AfD could become the largest party on eight of the state's 17 district councils, as well as on the city council in Gera.
Some ballots were still being counted as of on Monday afternoon.
Partial results showed the CDU with 27.6% of the vote after 2,581 of the 3,047 constituencies had been counted. The AfD followed closely behind with 26.4%.
