Germany's far-right AfD won a landslide victory in a key regional election Sunday in the ex-communist east, a result seen as a stinging rebuke for Chancellor Friedrich Merz, but looked set to miss out on an absolute majority to govern alone.

Saxony-Anhalt marks the AfD’s strongest performance in a regional election – and the highest vote share any party has secured at that level in the past decade

Exit polls show it winning 44% of vote, but too early to tell if victory will pave way for country's first far-right state government since WWII, as all major parties have ruled…