EU elections: An ideal forum for small exotic parties

The vote will serve as a crucial test ahead of general elections taking place later this year in a number of countries, including Germany. This country's coalition partners, the SPD and the CDU, will be watching the result closely as a barometer of their prospects in September. But a number of small parties are also fielding candidates for the EU Parliament, and they include some most voters have scarcely heard of. They're parties that could never make it into the Bundestag because of its five percent threshold, and they see the EU election as an ideal forum for making their concerns heard and their names known.