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MAGDEBURG, Germany — <\/span>The far-right Alternative for Germany was projected to win a strong victory in a regional election Sunday, but it wasn\u2019t immediately clear whether it would be able to fulfill its ambition of forming the country\u2019s first far-right state government since World War II. <\/p>\n The party of German’s unpopular leader, Chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/a>, was set for a disastrous result in the the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The anti-migration and Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany’s candidate for governor said that \u201cwe have written history.\u201d<\/p>\n Ulrich Siegmund, 35, told public broadcaster ARD that voters had sent a signal that \u201cthings cannot carry on like this\u201d and that it was \u201calso a signal toward Berlin.\u201d Of Germany\u2019s unpopular leader, he said: \u201cA very good campaigner for us in this election campaign was Friedrich Merz. Every day this man is in the chancellery is one too many.\u201d<\/p>\n Alternative for Germany, or AfD, went into the vote seeking an absolute majority in the state legislature to govern on its own. That would overcome the so-called firewall<\/a> of mainstream parties\u2019 refusal to work with AfD, but it was unclear after polls closed whether it would happen.<\/p>\n A first state government would be the biggest prize in the anti-migration party\u2019s 13-year history, at a time of widespread discontent with a national government that has yet to persuade voters that it can get the country\u2019s sluggish economy<\/a> moving. <\/p>\n Whether or not AfD can form a government, the projected result is a blow to Merz, whose center-right party has led Saxony-Anhalt for 24 years. Unlike other countries in Europe, modern Germany hasn’t yet had a far-right or right-wing populist party leading a national, state or major-city government.<\/p>\n AfD is the biggest opposition party<\/a> in Germany\u2019s national parliament and is strongest in the formerly communist and less prosperous east, where Saxony-Anhalt is located. Its regional branch in Saxony-Anhalt is one of several classified by the domestic intelligence agency as a proven right-wing extremist group. AfD vehemently rejects accusations of extremism.<\/p>\n Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and early counting, put AfD at a bit over 44% of the vote, more than double its showing five years ago in the region of 2.1 million people west of Berlin.<\/p>\n That was far ahead of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union which was seen polling 18.5% and losing about half its support. The Left Party and the center-left Social Democrats and Greens were seen taking around 9% each. <\/p>\n It was unclear whether the BSW party would get the 5% of the vote needed to win seats. The projections put AfD at least marginally short of an absolute majority, though that could change.<\/p>\n AfD’s national co-leader, Alice Weidel, described the projected result as \u201csensational\u201d and said that \u201cwe have received a very clear mandate to govern here.\u201d The party’s \u201chand is outstretched to all who want to make Saxony-Anhalt better and move Germany forward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A visibly disappointed incumbent governor, Sven Schulze, congratulated AfD on becoming the state’s strongest political force and said that \u201cwe as the CDU will also have to deal with this result,\u201d without specifying how. <\/p>\n Franziska Hoppermann, the national general-secretary of Merz’s party, rejected the idea of backing off its refusal to deal with AfD. <\/p>\n \u201cAfD is a right-wing extremist party. It wants to leave the euro; that would be economic downfall … it works closely together with Russia, it wants a completely different social model,” she said. \u201cWe will not work with them.\u201d<\/p>\n