The Telegraph's Berlin correspondent Justin Huggler reports from the start of the "alternative European summit":

The leaders of Europe’s rising far-Right are gathering in Germany on Saturday at the start of a year they hope will overturn the political order of the continent.

A day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, and Frauke Petry, the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, are sharing a stage for the first time, in what they say will be an “alternative European summit”.

“We will make our countries great again,” Mr Wilders tweeted in a clear attempt to borrow some of President Trump’s new lustre.

Mrs Petry proclaimed the summit on Twitter as the “start of the European election campaign”.

Ms Le Pen is currently leading the polls ahead of France’s presidential election in April, though she is forecast to lose a second round run-off in May.

Mr Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) is leading the polls ahead of a general election in the Netherlands in March, although the other parties say they will refuse to form a coalition with him and block his route to power.

Though her party is only third in the German polls, Mrs Petry is hoping it can win enough seats in German elections in September to force Angela Merkel from power.

The summit will be the first time these leaders, who all want to step back from European integration, have ever cooperated so closely.

They will be joined by Matteo Salvini, the Mussolini-admiring leader of Italy’s Lega Nord, and Harald Vilimsky of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ),which narrowly lost last month’s presidential election.

The meeting is taking place amid extraordinary controversy. It comes just days after a leading member of the AfD provoked outrage when he called for Germany to stop atoning for its Nazi past,and described the national Holocaust Memorial as a “monument of shame”.

Sigmar Gabriel, the German vice-chancellor, is expected to join thousands of protesters outside the venue, on the banks of the river Rhine.

So is the Rhenish Philharmonic Orchestra, which plans to play Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the European Union’s anthem, in protest.

Although the meeting is being hosted by the AfD, it has been disowned by half the party, who regard Ms Le Pen’s Front National as too far-Right and want nothing to do with it.

The event is being held by Europe of Nations and Freedom,a far-Right grouping in the European parliament.

Markus Pretzell, the organiser and Mrs Petry’s husband, has banned much of the German press and some international media from attending the summit, accusing them of bias against the party.

“I don’t like how you work, I don’t give a damn what you write” Mr Pretzell told the Washington Post. Also not welcome are Spiegel magazine,Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper and all German public broadcasters.