Germany's Social Democrats won in the eastern state of Brandenburg, pushing out the far-right AfD in a tightly contested race.

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.

The Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz have won an election in the eastern German state of Brandenburg. They gained a narrow edge over a growing far-right party.

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. The far-right Alternative for Germany was a close second with 29.2%.

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.

Following AfD’s victory in Thuringia, race in one of smallest German states in terms of population becomes focus of attention

Germans in the state of Brandenburg were voting in a regional election on Sunday with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) expected to finish first, building on successes in other eastern states and beating Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats in one of their traditional strongholds.