In Germany and Britain, right-wing populists are imploding | The World Weekly

Just over a year ago, Alternative für Deutschland’s star was rising. Having formed as an anti-euro party in 2013, it had switched focus to immigration and entered regional parliaments in Rhineland Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg for the first time as voters punished Chancellor Angela Merkel for the influx of refugees and migrants. In September, it beat the ruling Christian Democratic Union into third place in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a result all the more humiliating because it is Ms. Merkel’s home state.

Now, it is in disarray. After months of fighting, leader Frauke Petry said last week that she would not stand on the ticket for September’s federal elections. At a convention this weekend the party nominated two lesser-known figures to take it into the contest; a motion tabled by Ms. Petry calling for the party to join a national coalition was not even considered. Ms. Merkel faces a stiff challenge but it comes from Martin Schulz’s Social Democrats, not from the right.

“The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is struggling for multiple reasons: the immediate pressure of the migration crisis has abated; Schulz has won back working-class voters for the SPD; amid infighting, the AfD is pulling away from the centre and farther towards the extreme right,” said Carsten Nickel of Teneo Intelligence, a research firm. “This hard-core nationalist positioning has relegated the party back into the single digits, from previously closer to 15%.”

It is a similar story in Britain, where the UK Independence Party (UKIP) was itching to take on Labour in its northern heartlands after the EU referendum last June. Douglas Carswell, the party’s sole member of Parliament, has since deserted after being attacked by Nigel Farage and other more extreme figures for being soft on immigration. It is tacking hard to the right under Paul Nuttall, its new leader, and is expected to win around 7.5% of the vote in the snap June election, down from 12.9% in 2015.

Nonetheless, the AfD’s burst of popularity was one reason why Ms. Merkel steadily hardened her stance on the refugee crisis. Similarly, David Cameron, then prime minister, promised to hold a referendum on EU membership in 2013 to stop Conservatives following Mr. Carswell over to UKIP. In the recent Dutch election Prime Minister Mark Rutte aped Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration rhetoric in order to beat him.

Populists do not have to win power to influence policy.