Tuesday, October 06, 2015

German Anti-Islam Group Vents Fury at Merkel over Refugee Welcome


YAHOO! NEWS: Dresden (Germany) (AFP) - Thousands of German anti-Islam protesters on Monday vented their fury at Chancellor Angela Merkel over her welcoming of refugees, accusing her of "high treason" and "crimes against the German people".

With Europe's top economy expecting to take in up to a million people fleeing war and poverty this year, anger has flared among anti-foreigner groups and members of the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement ("Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident").

"Merkel is guilty, commits ethnocide against the German people," read one banner at the rally in Dresden, the historic city in the former communist East where PEGIDA emerged about a year ago and, after a lull, is now looking to swell its ranks.

Waving flags, the agitated crowd cheered on co-founder Lutz Bachmann, 42, who was charged last week with inciting racial hatred by labelling asylum-seekers "animals", "trash" and "filthy rabble".

"It won’t stop with 1.5 or two million" arrivals, he said.

"They will have their wives come, and one, two, three children. It is an impossible task to integrate these people." » | Coralie Febvre | Monday, October 5, 2015