Brandenburg's State Premier and SPD top candidate in the regional elections in Brandenburg, Dietmar Woidke, reacts after the publication of the exit polls and before addressing party members and supporters at the election party venue of the Social Democratic Party SPD in Potsdam, eastern Germany on September 22, 2024, during regional state elections in the eastern German state of Brandenburg. Chancellor Scholz's Social Democrats were narrowly ahead of the far-right AfD in a closely-fought regional election Sunday in Germany's formerly communist east, according to exit polls. (Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP)