Germany’s anti-Islam Pegida movement staged rallies in several cities across Europe yesterday to protest the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
The movement, whose name stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, originated in the eastern German city of Dresden in 2014, with supporters seizing on a surge in asylum-seekers to warn that Germany risks being overrun by Muslims.
After almost fizzling out early last year, the movement has regained momentum amid deepening public unease over whether Germany can cope with the 1.1mn migrants who arrived in the country during 2015.
The alleged involvement of migrants in assaults on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve has also spurred Pegida, which says it is proof that German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcoming stance to refugees is flawed.
“We must succeed in guarding and controlling Europe’s external borders as well as its internal borders once again,” Pegida member Siegfried Daebritz told a crowd on the banks of the River Elbe who chanted “Merkel must go!”
Police in Dresden declined to estimate the number of protesters. German media put the number at up to 8,000, well below the 15,000 originally expected by police.
Hundreds of counter-demonstrators also marched through Dresden under the motto “Solidarity instead of exclusion”, holding up placards saying “No place for Nazis”.
Far-right groups see Europe’s migrant crisis as an opportunity to broadcast their anti-immigrant message.
There were 208 rallies in Germany in the last quarter of 2015, up from 95 a year earlier, interior ministry data showed.
Protests also took place yesterday in other cities, including Amsterdam, Prague and the English city of Birmingham, and not just in Europe.
The chain of protests began in Canberra in Australia, where 400 people marched towards the parliament building in the Australian capital, shouting Islamophobic slogans such as “We love bacon”.
In Calais, in northern France, more than a dozen people were arrested during a protest that was attended by more than a hundred people despite being banned, local authorities said.
Around 150 protesters gathered in central Calais carrying signs such as “This is our home”, waving the French flag and singing the French national anthem, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.
Thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East camp out in Calais, hoping for a chance to make the short trip across the English Channel to Britain.
Ahead of the protest, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Wednesday called on authorities in Calais to prevent all demonstrations “regardless of the organisers”.
He said the ban particularly covered “all these groups that create tensions, division and violence” and would last as long as necessary.
In Prague, an estimated 2,200 people including both supporters and opponents of Pegida held a series of rival demonstrations around the Czech capital.
Around 400 people protested against Pegida in Prague and campaigned for solidarity with refugees seeking protection and a better life in Europe.
“We want to fight against the growing xenophobia in Czech society,” a counter-demonstrator said.
Others carried signs reading “Hate solves no problems” and “Refugees welcome”.
Police had to intervene in one march when supporters of the migrants came under attack from around 20 people who threw bottles and stones.