Conservatives go to polls in Germany fearful of far-right threat

Victory for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt would be a devastating blow for Armin Laschet's CDU

Germans in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt headed to the polls on Sunday, with the far right posing a tough challenge to Angela Merkel's conservatives in the final major test before the first general election in 16 years not to feature the veteran chancellor.

Saxony-Anhalt is one of Germany's smallest states with a population of 2.2 million, but with Merkel's Christian Democratic Union running neck-and-neck with the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) there, the stakes could not be higher for the regional vote.