The leaders of Germany's populist far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party are breathing a sigh of relief: Sunday's local elections in the eastern German state of Thuringia were no triumph, but no disaster either. With the EU election looming, it seems no international scandal or internal row can deter its core voters.

Thuringia is one of the party's major strongholds: Led by one of its most notorious figures, Björn Höcke, the Thuringian AfD has established itself as the biggest party in the state, regularly polling at over 30% — well above the national figures of around 15-20%.

But Sunday's local council elections, seen as a barometer both for the European elections in June and the Thuringia state election in September, did not bring the "blue wave" (the party's color) that some expected. Even though the party was able to increase its vote share on 2019 by 8 percentage points, reaching just under 26%, it was not able to claim a single mayor's office. Nine AfD candidates will have to make do with competing in run-off votes in the coming weeks.

Through it all, the AfD is often still polling nationally in second place after the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — despite the almost daily reports of rows, racism, and allegations of treason and corruption.

Last week was calamitous........

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