An exit poll released after voting ended in a state election in Brandenburg, Germany on Sunday showed the Social Democrats with a slight edge over a growing right-wing party. The voting took place three weeks after the party made gains in two other states in eastern Germany.

Sunday's vote followed a heated election campaign centred on the issues of migration, internal security and peace.

A state election is taking place in Brandenburg three weeks after a far-right party made gains in two other states in eastern Germany

Brandenburg is a longstanding stronghold for the party. But it is located in Germany’s relatively impoverished east, where the anti-immigrant A f D performs far better than in the west. That made this election a test of whether the SPD could beat the populists on its home ground.

The ruling SPD has just scraped by in a critical electoral test, but a closer look at the numbers show trouble for next year's elections.

After a string of disappointing elections, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) finally have something to celebrate after narrowly winning Sunday's vote in the eastern state of Brandenburg,

According to final results published Sunday evening by the state electoral administration, the Social Democrats won 30.9% of the votes in the election to the parliament of Brandenburg, the state that surrounds Berlin.