A German Jewish leader has equated the electoral success of a populist, right-wing party with the rise of the Third Reich.

On Sunday, Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won seats in Berlin’s state parliament for the first time since it was founded in 2013.

The former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, who now heads the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, expressed concern at the prospect of the party occupying 25 seats out of 160, describing it as a “true nightmare”.

The Holocaust survivor said: “Democratic parties [need] to make good use of the time between now and the next elections in 2017 to stop the Nazi renaissance.”

She went on to describe AfD as “a party that incites against minorities in a disgusting manner, that wants to make National Socialist terminology and approaches acceptable again, that is unable to distance itself credibly from neo-Nazis and Holocaust-deniers”.

AfD has an anti-immigrant, Euro-sceptic platform and the party has been criticised in the recent past for showing signs of antisemitism.