Helmut kohl, a former German chancellor, used to say that there must never be a political party in parliament to the right of his own Christian Democrats (cdu). Mr Kohl was worried about right-wing parties that could raise the spectre of Germany's Nazi past. At the European elections his fear came true, in a less menacing yet still important way. It did so not because the npd, composed of right-wing extremists, was one of 14 German parties to win representation in the European Parliament. That was due merely to a legal change that translates even less than 1% of votes into one seat. Rather, Mr Kohl's worry was vindicated because the one-year-old Alternative for Germany surged to 7% of the vote. Bernd Lucke, the Alternative's boss and one of the seven delegates it will send to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, is confident that the party will now also enter state parliaments in regional elections later this year. In 2017, it could even become part of the federal Bundestag.
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