Anti-euro party in parliament?

The Alternative for Germany (AfD), a seven-month-old party that campaigned on voter fears about the cost of euro zone bailouts, was the wild card in the election. Now exit polls see them in parliament.

First results put the AfD at 4.9 percent, just underneath the 5 percent threshold required to gain representation in parliament.

The Alternative for Germany is led by a group of renegade academics, lawyers and journalists. It wants an "orderly dismantling" of the euro and says Germans should consider returning to the Deutsche Mark.

They have been campaigning hard to draw conservative voters, who are concerned because Germany, Europe's largest economy, underwrites the biggest share of the bailouts for Greece and EU countries.

If it is confirmed that the AfD nudges above the 5 percent mark needed to enter parliament, it will be the first new party in the Bundestag since 1990 and the only one to favor a breakup of the euro, the currency created in 1999 and now shared by 17 countries.

This is a signal that will cause a headache for the next government.