Vicious cycle: How far-right parties are cannibalising the centre right

Far-right parties could become the largest force on the right in Europe within a decade, experts have said, as mainstream conservative parties look to copy their hardline agendas, especially on immigration, in a vain effort to win back votes.

- Jon Henley

Germany's conservatives last week sparked fury when their leader, Friedrich Merz, the country's likely next chancellor, broke a longstanding pledge by relying on far-right votes to adopt a nonbinding motion urging a drastic immigration crackdown. The leader of Alternative für Deutschland, Alice Weidel, hailed "a historic day for Germany" as the Bundestag, for the first time in its history, passed a vote with the backing of her party, which is second in the polls ahead of elections on 23 February.

In France, controversial remarks by the centrist prime minister, François Bayrou, about French people feeling "submerged" by immigration were hailed by the farright National Rally as evidence that it had "won the ideological battle".

In Austria, the pro-Kremlin Freedom party (FPÖ), which wants to expel all asylum seekers, is in talks with the mainstream Austrian People's party (ÖVP) and looks set to lead to the country's first far-right-led government since the second world war.