Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have clung on to power in Sunday’s election in Saxony.

But with less than 40 percent of the vote it was the Christian Democrats’ worst state performance.

The surprise of the poll was that the eurosceptic Alternative for Germany party won its first seats in a state assembly.

The AFD, founded in early 2013 to oppose the eurozone bailouts won 10 percent of the vote in the first of three eastern elections in a fortnight.