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| Participants hold up their mobile phones and wave a German national flag during a demonstration called by anti-immigration group PEGIDA in Dresden |
A new type of anti-immigration protest is sweeping across Germany, as thousands take to the streets against what they say is the growing “Islamisation” of the country.
The new protests, which began in the city of Dresden in the former East Germany, feature no neo-Nazi slogans and have nothing to do with the traditional far right.
Instead the demonstrators have adopted the old rallying call of the protests against the East German communist regime that brought down the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, “Wir sind das Volk”, or “We are the people”. They say they want to preserve Germany’s Judeo-Christian Western culture.
The protests come as Bavaria’s ruling Christian Social Union (CSU) is seeking to distance itself from a draft proposal for its party conference which said that immigrants should speak German not only in public, but at home as well.
Germany is now the second most popular destination in the world for migrants, after the US, and the country is struggling to cope with an unprecedented influx of asylum-seekers.
While Angela Merkel’s government has made clear it will block any attempt by David Cameron to curtail freedom of movement within the EU, the German debate over immigration has focused on those coming from outside the bloc, and on Muslims in particular. » | Justin Huggler, Berlin | Monday, December 08, 2014
DEUTSCHE WELLE: Dresden, Dusseldorf prepare for PEGIDA anti-Islamist protests: Right-wing groups have organized protests with less politically extreme citizens to voice their concern over what they see as the Islamization of Europe. Counter demonstrations, however, are expected to be bigger. » | Monday, December 08, 2014
