AfD leads in German northeast state election, exit polls show

In the northeastern reaches of Germany, where reunification's promises met the harder realities of economic dislocation, voters once again turned toward the Alternative for Germany party on Sunday, with exit polls placing the far-right movement at the head of a state election. The result is less a sudden rupture than the continuation of a slow geological shift — the AfD, born as a protest in 2017, has become something more permanent in the German political landscape. What remains to be written is how the center responds when the margins keep winning.