Several thousand people demonstrated in Dresden against the anti-Islamic and xenophobic Pegida movement. The occasion was the anniversary of the self-proclaimed "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident" (Pegida), who held their first assembly in Dresden on October 20, 2014.
The organizers of the protests started from more than 5000 participants. At the rally, the alliance called "heart instead of hate speech". Demonstrators from Chemnitz and Leipzig had come to Dresden.
At the rally of Pegida on the Neumarkt in front of the Frauenkirche, on the other hand, an estimated 3000 followers gathered. The police did not announce participant numbers.
Matthias Rietschel / dpa central image / dpa
Participants of a rally by Pegida and participant of counter-demonstrations stand on the Altmarkt, the oldest square in Dresden
The speakers included the spokesman for the far-right identity movement from Austria, Martin Sellner, and the Dresden AfD member of the Bundestag, Jens Maier. Even Pegida boss Lutz Bachmann took the floor. The crowd reacted with familiar chants like "Merkel has to go" or "Liespresse".
Hitler salute and unknown fluid
According to the police, a malodorous liquid was thrown out of the Pegida assembly twice in the direction of the counter-demonstrators. Criminals made tracks and initiated investigations into attempted dangerous bodily harm, it was said. In addition, two men aged 62 and 40 are being investigated because they showed the Hitler salute during or after the Pegida demo.
Dresden's Lord Mayor Dirk Hilbert (FDP) had also participated in the protest against Pegida. It is important that Dresden show its face on such a day - at a time when tendencies towards disinhibition in society are increasing, he said.
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Pegida was founded in the fall of 2014 as a small group of people and took to the streets every Monday. The movement rapidly gained popularity and found imitators in other German cities. In mid-January 2015, it reached its peak with about 25,000 participants in Dresden. Shortly thereafter followed the split. Bachmann's xenophobic statements discouraged moderate Pegida people. The overwhelming majority remained loyal to him.
After the split, Pegida increasingly radicalized. But you never got back to previous attendance. Only on the anniversaries in October could Bachmann mobilize a larger number of followers. On the other hand, however, counter-protests of the Dresden population remained manageable and also limited to the Pegida anniversaries.
