In the European Parliament elections on June 9, the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party came second in Germany — and in the five states in the east of the country, the party, which has extremist factions, even came first. The results alarmed both federal and state governments across all parties.

In September, three of those eastern states — Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg — are holding elections. If the AfD becomes the strongest party, as is expected, the others will find it difficult to form a governing coalition to outnumber it, especially as Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens are so weak that in Saxony and Thuringia they may not even clear the 5% threshold to enter the state parliament.

This is as much a concern for the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) as it is for the SPD. Although the CDU was by far the strongest German party in the European elections, it came only second in the east of the country (also by a wide margin).

"The results have got under our skin," said Lower Saxony State Premier Stephan Weil, after a conference of the 16 state premiers with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin this week. "We know that migration plays a role in this context," he added.

There is "an urgent need for action in the execution of migration law, deportation practices and the satisfaction of the need for security," added Reiner Haseloff, CDU state premier of Saxony-Anhalt. While Hesse's CDU State Premier Boris Rhein chimed in: "There is a clear expectation among citizens that we deliver on these crucial issues, and in my opinion the election results have once again made the pressure to act very clear."

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