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By any standards it was an unusual press conference.
In January of this year the leaders of Europe's far-right parties put aside their many differences and gathered in Germany to call on the continent to "wake up".
Emboldened by Brexit and Donald Trump's election they claimed an unstoppable political wave was on its way to knock down the dominoes of Europe.
Well, no.
Domino number one
The first, Dutch domino didn't fall.
It's not that anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders didn't give it a wobble — he picked up five new seats at last week's general election.
But his party's result was far worse than opinion polls had predicted.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte declared the "wrong sort of populism" had been stopped and some commentators claim 2017 will eventually become known as the year the far-right flopped.
That's a big call.
The reality is probably far more boring.
Put simply, British and American political trends are not particularly accurate predictors of European elections.
Domino number two
Consider the second domino in line, France.
Thirty-four days before the country begins voting to pick a president, the National Front's Marine Le Pen has a narrow lead in the polls over independent centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron on 26 per cent.
Her right-wing campaign is driven by fairly similar forces to those that propelled Mr Trump to the White House.
But the oft-quoted polling numbers overlook two key facts.
Firstly, the country's main right and left-wing parties are in disarray, splitting the vote roughly five ways.
Secondly, French presidential elections have two rounds.
If Ms Le Pen wins the multi-candidate first leg, then she will likely be crushed two weeks later in the final "one vs one" round.
The electoral system works to prevent a major surprise.
Domino number three
So, on to Deutschland, the third and biggest domino.
The right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is on track to make history in September's general elections.
In a country that's shunned nationalists since World War II, AfD seems set to get more than 5 per cent of the vote and gain seats in the federal parliament for the first time.
That's interesting, but not the biggest threat to conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's tenure.
The conservative leader is in front in the polls and far more likely to be knocked off by her traditional rivals, the centre-left Social Democrats.
Germany's electoral system has similarities to the Netherlands.
Usually it throws up multi-party coalition governments, ensuring the far-right need a massive chunk of the vote to ever seize power.
So, is the far-right going to flop or not?
Well, the anti-establishment nationalist and populist groups have repeatedly proven they don't need power to be influential.
In the Netherlands, Mr Wilders can claim a lot of credit for pushing Dutch politics to the right, particularly on issues of integration and immigration — he won't be in Government but some of his ideas might be.
Similarly in Germany Ms Merkel has been accused of imitating asylum-seeker policies AfD flagged first.
There are also so many known, unknowns in Europe at the moment.
Who could completely rule out another political scandal, terrorist attack, influx of asylum seekers or a financial crisis turning things on their head in 2017?
The far-right's momentum has probably been overblown by journalists and politicians primed to expect the unexpected after last year's surprises in Britain and the US.
The movement is almost certainly not the unstoppable force it claims.
But then again, it's also far too early to completely write it off.
Topics: world-politics, european-union