New Delhi, Sept. 8 -- Alternative for Germany (AfD), the German far-right political party, scored a major electoral victory in the local elections in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday. While AfD's electoral gains did not come as a surprise to anyone, the 43.8% vote the outfit still kept at an arm's length from Germany's mainstream parties is seen as a major shift in the political direction of Europe's largest economy.

The AfD is on track to win 39 seats in Saxony-Anhalt's 83-seat state parliament, which means that it will fall short of the simple majority to form the next regional government. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which only managed to win 17.2% of the votes on Sunday, can still try to stit...