Alongside the European Parliament elections, voters in about half of German states cast ballots to elect local officials on Sunday. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) made significant gains in the eastern German states of Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg, according to interim results. But the AfD came away empty handed in run-off elections in Thuringia, where AfD candidates were seeking the district administrator post in nine different municipalities. A neo-Nazi activist, Tommy Frenck, collected 31% of the vote in the district of Hildburghausen in Thuringia but wa…