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.

Scholz's Social Democrats celebrate likely winover far right in German state vote:: Potsdam, Germany:::: Dietmar Woidke, Social Democrat, Brandenburg State Premier“When an openly, in big parts and overall openly right-wing extremist party in our state scores around 30% of votes,

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.