via APNEWS:
The far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has risen to second place in national polls behind the Union, won’t be a factor in determining the states’ new governments, as other parties refused to work with it.
But it looked likely to finish second in Hesse and possibly also in Bavaria. Projections showed it taking about 18% of the vote in Hesse and 16% in Bavaria, improving significantly on lower double-digit showings when the two states last voted in 2018.
They showed disappointing results for the three national governing parties — Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats. Hesse’s conservative governor, Boris Rhein, was challenged by both his current Green deputy and by the Social Democrats’ candidate, national Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.