FOUR POINTS TO PONDER: Far-right winning first regional election in Germany

1. This is the first time a far-right party has won state polls in the country’s postwar history, thus making it historic.

2. The voters' anger is reflected in the extent of the defeat of the parties in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-way coalition. Look closer, Social Democrats, Greens and liberals ended up with single digits in both Saxony and in Thuringia.

3. Almost three and half decades after German reunification, a majority of people in two regions of the former communist East Germany remain disillusioned and disenchanted with the mainstream parties of the centre.

4. The results could also be the outcome of a sentiment measuring how Germany is responding to the war in Ukraine.