Members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party celebrated the results of the Hessen state elections from Wiesbaden on Sunday.
With 12 percent of the vote, AfD secured fourth place. With these results, the right-wing party will enter the Hessen parliament for the first time. In 2013, the party failed to pass the threshold to enter the state parliament of Hessen.
Merkel’s Christian Democrat Union (CDU) came in as front runner with 28 percent of the votes. Meanwhile, their grand coalition partner in the national government, the Social Democrats (SPD), suffered their worst loss since 1946, and the Greens made strident gains of 8.5 points.