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| Lutz Bachmann, leader of the Pegida movement. |
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The wrath at Pegida rallies is reserved almost exclusively for Angela Merkel, who is repeatedly referred to as a “traitor of the people”. The German chancellor – whom many hold responsible for the crisis, namely for her “open door” policy towards asylum claims – is depicted as everything from a euro dictator, dressed in a Nazi-style uniform with red arm bands showing euro signs instead of swastikas, to a state security informant called Erica.
In between speeches the crowds chant “Merkel raus!” (Merkel out), “Widerstand” (resistance) and “Wir sind das Volk” (We are the people) – a rallying cry stolen from the 1989 dissident protests that were crucial in bringing down the Berlin Wall. Alongside German flags, scores are waving what under the bright lights initially looks like the Norwegian flag but is the black, red and gold cross emblem of the Nazi resistance movement led by Claus von Stauffenberg – who was executed after his failed attempt to assassinate Hitler on 20 July 1944.
“We are resistance fighters like him,” an elderly woman trying to push a bike through the crowds says. “We have hardly ever been so vulnerable in our history as we are now, with the borders open and everyone and anyone, including suicide bombers and economic freeloaders, pouring in.” Like many here, she declines to give her name or any other details that might identify her.
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Read the whole article and comment » | Kate Connolly in Dresden | Tuesday, October 27, 2015
THE GUARDIAN: Bavaria threatens legal challenge to Merkel's open door refugee policy: State’s leader Horst Seehofer has been at loggerheads with the chancellor for weeks and blames her for the scale of the refugee crisis in Germany » | Kate Connolly in Berlin | Friday, October 9, 2015
