A party deemed to be far-right is set to win a state election in Germany for the first time since World War Two. The result is a major blow for the ruling coalition government ahead of the national elections next year.

Provisional results of vote counting in the former East German states of Thuringia and Saxony have been announced.

They show the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has won 32.8 percent of the vote in Thuringia, securing a lead of nearly 10 percentage points.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party won 6.1 percent. This is reportedly the lowest on record for the party in a state election.

In Saxony, the AfD has won 30.6 percent of the votes. It trails the largest opposition Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, by a small margin.

AfD politicians have made pro-Nazi comments and discriminatory statements about Muslims. The party has gained support for its anti-immigrant policies.

Far-right parties have long struggled to gain a foothold in Germany, where the education system focuses on learning from the horrors of the country's Nazi history.