Berlin (CNN) They didn't win the biggest share of the vote, but the far-right Alternative for Germany party did manage to achieve what similar parties in the Netherlands and France failed to do -- fracture the country's political landscape.

Preliminary results suggest a huge surge in support for the AfD, putting it in third place after Germany's two biggest parties, Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union and the center-left Social Democratic Party .

The AfD, which was set up only four years ago, will become the first far-right party to enter the Bundestag since 1961.

Their vote more than doubled

Seen by many as a fledgling young party from the radical right, the AfD won just 4.7% of the vote in the last federal elections in 2013. This time around it took about 12.6%, according to preliminary official results.

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