At what point does a threshold become excessive? Proportional representation purists would say right from the start, as it permits a gap to emerge between representatives and those they represent. Nevertheless, most electoral legislation establishes thresholds to avoid fragmentation. The German Constitutional Court is quite punctilious on this subject, but has never questioned the 5% threshold for representation. It has even offered it protection, for example in a decision of 30 May 1962 on access to the media during election campaigns, where it stated that if new parties whose sole aim was to make themselves known were to have the same access to broadcasting facilities as the large parties, this would create a sense of uncertainty in the electorate and a tendency for voting to fragment, which was definitely to be avoided. Admittedly, this is an old decision but the reasoning is still valid.