France, Sept. 6 -- Opinion polls put the AfD above 40 percent - some 15 to 20 points ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD's 35-year-old lead candidate, is hoping to become the party's first state premier. He has spent months campaigning across the largely rural region of former East Germany, drawing crowds to village halls and town squares.

"I want my beautiful, old, safe Germany back," he has told supporters.

Germany's anti-immigration AfD elects new leaders amid mass protests Path to power

Siegmund rejects the far-right label and presents himself as a more approachable figure than some of the AfD's harder-line politicians. A prolific social media user, he has bu...