AfD proves a force to be reckoned with

Populist party "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) began life at the height of Europe's sovereign debt crisis in 2013 on an anti-euro platform.

But as fears over a potential euro collapse waned and concerns turned to the 1.1 million asylum seekers who arrived in Germany last year, AfD has morphed into a party that has even suggested that police may have to shoot at migrants to stop them from entering the country.

Its transformation into an anti-migrant party has been accompanied by its stellar rise in popularity, with opinion polls predicting that it would record a surge in support when more than 12 million voters elect new regional parliaments for the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday.