Il Nuovo Postiglione - German AfD supporters jubilant at far right's thumping win

As exit polls put the Alternative for Germany's vote share at a thumping 44 percent, jubilant scenes erupted at a post-election party in Magdeburg, capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

AfD state lawmaker Daniel Wald, 44, compared the unbridled happiness to the collective joy he remembers witnessing as a child on the day the Berlin Wall fell.

"That very feeling -- that emotion I experienced back in 1989, with tears in my eyes and all the people around me, my family, cheering -- that exact feeling welled up again when we stood up there and saw the result," he said.

"And that is precisely what the people are feeling right now ... that this is a new beginning. And, of course, that spirit is meant to spread across the entire country."

Angela Maike, a retiree from the city, told AFP: "I thought the result would be around 41 percent, but it's higher."

"I always prefer to be a bit pessimistic beforehand so I can be pleasantly surprised afterwards. And that's what happened today," she added, ordering two beers and a glass of red wine for her friends to celebrate the victory.

The 65-year-old said she "gave it her all" during the election campaign, and had helped by putting up posters -- and by rehanging those that were torn down.

- High turnout -

Voters flocked to back the AfD's lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund, a telegenic 35-year-old with a huge following on social media, who is hoping to form the first far-right state government in Germany since the Nazi era, to the dismay of mainstream parties and members of minority groups.

With votes still being counted, it was unclear whether the anti-immigration party would be able to win an absolute majority to govern.

Julian Schneider, a 29-year-old member of the AfD's youth organisation, was not surprised at the result -- which saw the AfD more than double its support, putting it far ahead of the centre-right CDU of Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

"I'm naturally optimistic, but I think it was predictable," he said.

Pointing to the high turnout -- 78 percent, according to public broadcaster ZDF -- he welcomed the fact that "people who might not have gone to vote in the end mobilised to vote for the AfD" in the small state of 2.1 million.

Five years ago at the last state election in Saxony-Anhalt, turnout was around 60 percent.

- 'Chancellor of the heart' -

Many men in suits and a few women in evening dress were standing around small tables listening to Bjoern Hoecke -- a senior AfD firebrand politician who has been convicted for using a banned Nazi slogan -- belt out a victory song.

Siegmund was set to join his supporters later in the evening at the venue, a theatre built in the 1930s that once served as a military drill hall before becoming a cinema for Soviet soldiers in communist East Germany.

Wearing sneakers in sky-blue -- the AfD's signature colour -- and a T-shirt bearing the slogan "AfD Vision," one 64-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous, said Siegmund could be the saviour of Saxony-Anhalt.

Something has to be done," said the retiree, who hoped to get a cardboard heart emblazoned with the words "chancellor of the heart" -- a hopeful reference to Alice Weidel, the AfD's national co-leader -- signed by her.

He listed a string of complaints about life now in the small state as reasons he has put his trust in the AfD.

"People are leaving (the state), companies are being forced to close, companies are closing or relocating their activities abroad," he said.

"The state continues to sink into decline. The municipalities are all bankrupt. We are overwhelmed by immigration, some of which is irregular."

F.Ciambrone--INP