The AfD may not end up controlling Germany's Saxony-Anhalt state despite a landslide election victory, but the far-right party's "dream result" sends a clear message.

German judges and prosecutors have warned that the government needs to reform the laws around how state prosecutors to prevent extremist parties like the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) abusing them.

When evening draws in, there is no escape from the towering windmills of Crivitz, a town where homeowners live on the front line of Germany’s energy crisis.

BERLIN (AP) — Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has established itself as a significant political force in the 13 years since its founding, but it has never been part of any state or federal government. That’s a result of what is often called a “firewall” against cooperation with the anti-immigrant, far-right party.

AfD Saxony-Anhalt is a racist extremist group, according to the German state's intelligence agency. The party may well trounce its rivals in this weekend's state election.

The party recently secured a historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt, another former state in the German Democratic Republic, as East Germany was known, and is on track to come first in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s regional election on Sunday, polling at about 37 per cent.

As a result, Germany has seen a spiral of escalation for over ten years: the more the AfD was marginalised by other parties, the more it radicalised itself; and the more it radicalised itself, the more it was marginalised. The ethno-nationalist, xenophobic, pro-Russian wing grew increasingly powerful, shifting the AfD towards the far right.

Protesters in about 20 cities, including Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, demand the banning of the Alternative for Germany.

Two German state elections Sunday could deal a double blow to embattled Chancellor Friedrich Merz, two weeks after his party suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of the far-right AfD. Tight races for power -- each with their own unique electoral dynamics -- are expected in the city-state of Berlin and the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.