BERLIN – Exit polls released Sunday showed the Left Party leading the state election in Germany's capital Berlin with 24.5 percent of the vote, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) took first place in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with 37.0 percent.

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In Berlin, the AfD surged from 9.1 percent in the 2023 election to 16.0 percent, coming in third after the Left Party and the incumbent Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

It is also the far-right party's best result ever in the capital.

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The Social Democratic Party (SPD) took 35.5 percent of the vote in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, trailing the AfD. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU suffered heavy losses in the state, gaining only 5.5 percent, less than half of its 2021 result.