GERMANY - Anti-immigrant populists beat Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) to second place in an election in the east German state of Thuringia yesterday, building spectacularly on their steady momentum since first entering the Bundestag two years ago. According to exit polls, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) took nearly 24% of the vote, beating the centre-right CDU by one percentage point but, as expected, failing to oust incumbent leftwingers Die Linke. The AfD more than doubled its share of the vote. Despite that, it has no chance of entering power yet, as other parties have ruled out joining it in a coalition. But the party’s national standing is boosted by the result, which was closely watched in Berlin, as is the status of its state leader Björn Höcke, considered Germany’s most controversial politician, who has been accused of stoking hatred with anti-Jewish rhetoric.