Far left wins Berlin state election, far-right AfD in Germany's northeast

Germany's far-left party Die Linke (the Left) has taken first place in a state election in Berlin, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the most votes in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Die Linke took 25.7 percent of the vote in Berlin, the state election authority said early on Monday, comfortably ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), which finished with just 18.8 percent of the vote.