And it was set to finish at least a very close second to Conservatives in a second vote, projections showed.
A new party founded by a prominent leftist also made an immediate impact, while the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's unpopular national coalition government did poorly.
Projections based on exit polls and partial counting showed Alternative for Germany winning 32-33% of the vote in Thuringia well ahead of the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union, the main national opposition party, with about 24%. In neighbouring Saxony, projections put support for the CDU, which has led the state since German reunification in 1990, at 31.5-31.8% and the AfD on 30.7-31.4%.
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