Europe wrestles with impact of historic regional gains for Germany's AfD

"Seismic", "a socio-political earthquake", "a watershed moment for Germany".

This was how political analysts and many media outlets described the stunning victory of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in local elections in Germany on Sunday. Is that an exaggeration?

Saxony-Anhalt is one of the smallest of massive Germany's 16 regions. It boasts a mere 1.7m out of 59m eligible voters nationwide. How significant can its political sentiments be, especially since the AfD narrowly failed to win an outright majority?

The vote may have been regional but it impacts at national level. The AfD landslide piles even more pressure on the already beleaguered centrist coalition government in Berlin. It may prove to be the nail in the political coffin of Germany's deeply unpopular conservative Chancellor, Friedrich Merz. He had promised to slash the AfD's popularity.

These political woes will further weaken and distract Germany, the EU's most powerful player, at a time of continental crisis - as Europe struggles to contain Russian aggression, Donald Trump's tariff tantrums and the economic threat from China.

The Saxony-Anhalt result also provokes soul-searching throughout Germany, where the Nazi past still looms large. This is the first outstanding electoral landslide for a hard right nationalist party since the fall of the Third Reich in 1945.

The German authorities have labelled the AfD, in part, anti-democratic and a number of regional factions of the party, including Saxony-Anhalt, far right extremist.

The AfD is well known to be particularly popular in east Germany but it's now also polling as the biggest political party nationwide.