JTA — The far-right Alternative for Germany party tripled its vote in Lower Saxony’s local elections from five years ago, coming in third in a race won by Germany’s leading conservative party.

The nationalist, anti-immigrant AfD siphoned off votes from Germany’s mainstream parties in the northwestern state, home to 8 million people. The election was seen as a test of the AfD’s recent surge, sandwiched between its win earlier this month in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt and two upcoming elections in the Baltic coast state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the capital, Berlin, on Sept. 20.

Since the AfD was founded in 2013, it has been blocked from federal and state governments by what German centrist leaders call a “firewall,” with mainstream parties refusing to form coalitions with the AfD. The party advocates for deporting refugees, opposing multiculturalism, promoting social conservatism and diminishing Germany’s culture of Holocaust remembrance.

The municipal elections in Lower Saxony were watched unusually closely, a week after the AfD’s historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt, laying the groundwork for it to form a state government for the first time. Sunday’s elections decided Lower Saxony’s mayors, district administrators and local council representatives. The state hosts Volkswagen, one of the world’s largest automakers.

The AfD garnered 15.9% in Lower........

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