Opinion polls in the eastern German state of Saxony show the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) running head-to-head with the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) ahead of September's state parliamentary elections.
According to a poll published on Thursday by the polling agency Infratest dimap on behalf of regional public broadcaster MDR, the AfD currently has 30% of possible votes, closely followed by the CDU with 29%.
Another opinion poll conducted by Insa for several newspapers in Saxony and released on Wednesday also found a neck-and-neck race between the AfD (32%) and CDU (30%) is emerging.
The AfD's leader in Saxony, Jörg Urban, told MDR that his party is open to forming coalitions with others - something all mainstream parties in Germany have strictly ruled out - but could also come close to claiming power on its own.
"We know that we have a potential of up to 40% in Saxony," Urban said.
Saxony's state-level AfD party has been classified as a known far-right extremist group by the state's domestic intelligence agency, although the party is challenging that label in court.
The MDR poll found the upstart populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party could enter the Saxon state parliament in the fall as the third strongest force with a current approval rating of 15%.
The poll found that the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens remain at 7% in Saxony, while the hard-left Left Party would fall short of enough support to take seats in state parliament with just 3%.
The poll surveyed 1,157 eligible voters in Saxony, according to MDR.
Compared to the previous poll in January, however, the AfD lost five percentage points in voter support, while the CDU and the Left Party each lost one point.