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In December, Gordian Meyer-Plath, president of the [[Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz Sachsen|Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz]] said initial suspicion that PEGIDA might tie in with the riots staged by [[Hogesa]] earlier in [[Cologne]] did not substantiate, so the movement was not put under official surveillance. He said there were no indications that the organizers were embracing right-wingers. This assessment was contested by the weekly [[Die Zeit]] who researched the ideological proximity of PEGIDA organizer Siegfried Däbritz to the [[German Defence League]] or the European [[Identitarian movement]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Neues aus der Tabuzone|work=[[Die Zeit]]|issue=52|url=http://www.zeit.de/2014/52/pegida-dresden-wutbuerger-nationalismus-afd/seite-2|date=17 December 2014|accessdate=22 January 2015|language=de}}</ref> In a [[Der Tagesspiegel|Tagesspiegel]] interview on 19 January Meyer-Plath reaffirmed that the participant spectrum was very diverse and that there was no evidence of radicalization.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sachsen im Fokus der Dschihadisten| first=Frank| last=Jansen| work=[[Der Tagesspiegel]]|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/verfassungsschutz-praesident-im-interview-sachsen-im-fokus-der-dschihadisten/11250948.html|date=19 January 2015|accessdate=22 January 2015|language=de}}</ref>
In December, Gordian Meyer-Plath, president of the [[Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz Sachsen|Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz]] said initial suspicion that PEGIDA might tie in with the riots staged by [[Hogesa]] earlier in [[Cologne]] did not substantiate, so the movement was not put under official surveillance. He said there were no indications that the organizers were embracing right-wingers. This assessment was contested by the weekly [[Die Zeit]] who researched the ideological proximity of PEGIDA organizer Siegfried Däbritz to the [[German Defence League]] or the European [[Identitarian movement]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Neues aus der Tabuzone|work=[[Die Zeit]]|issue=52|url=http://www.zeit.de/2014/52/pegida-dresden-wutbuerger-nationalismus-afd/seite-2|date=17 December 2014|accessdate=22 January 2015|language=de}}</ref> In a [[Der Tagesspiegel|Tagesspiegel]] interview on 19 January Meyer-Plath reaffirmed that the participant spectrum was very diverse and that there was no evidence of radicalization.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sachsen im Fokus der Dschihadisten| first=Frank| last=Jansen| work=[[Der Tagesspiegel]]|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/verfassungsschutz-praesident-im-interview-sachsen-im-fokus-der-dschihadisten/11250948.html|date=19 January 2015|accessdate=22 January 2015|language=de}}</ref>

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Dresden University of Technology (TU) interviewed 400 Pegida demonstrators on 22 December 2014 and 12 January 2015. According to the poll, the main reason of their participation are: dissatisfaction of the politics (54 percent), "Islam, Islamism and Islamization” (23 percent), criticism of the media and the public (20 percent), reservations regarding asylum seekers and migrants (15 percent). 42 percent had reservations regarding Muslims or Islam, 20 percent of those questioned were concerned about the high rate of crimes committed by asylum seekers or feared socio-economic disadvantages.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Huber|first1=Joachim|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/medien/pegida-und-die-luegenpresse-wort-im-mund-umdrehen/11140250.html|title=Pegida und die "Lügenpresse". "Wort im Mund umdrehen"|accessdate=19 January 2015|agency=[http://www.tagesspiegel.de/ Der Tagesspiegel]|date=18 December 2014}}</ref> Vorländer does not see Pegida as a movement of right-wing extremists, pensioners or unemployed. The rallies serve as a way to express feelings and resentments against an political and opinion-making elite which have not been publicly articulated before.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Federl|first1=Fabian|last2=Meisner|first2=Matthias|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/hitler-verkleidung-fluechtlinge-als-viehzeug-die-hintergruende-zum-fall-lutz-bachmann/11252882.html|title=Hitler-Verkleidung, Flüchtlinge als "Viehzeug". Die Hintergründe zum Fall Lutz Bachmann|accessdate=22 January 2015|agency=[http://www.tagesspiegel.de/ Der Tagesspiegel]|date=21 January 2015}}</ref>
Dresden University of Technology (TU) interviewed 400 Pegida demonstrators on 22 December 2014 and 12 January 2015. According to the poll, the main reason of their participation are: dissatisfaction of the politics (54 percent), "Islam, Islamism and Islamization” (23 percent), criticism of the media and the public (20 percent), reservations regarding asylum seekers and migrants (15 percent). 42 percent had reservations regarding Muslims or Islam, 20 percent of those questioned were concerned about the high rate of crimes committed by asylum seekers or feared socio-economic disadvantages.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Huber|first1=Joachim|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/medien/pegida-und-die-luegenpresse-wort-im-mund-umdrehen/11140250.html|title=Pegida und die "Lügenpresse". "Wort im Mund umdrehen"|accessdate=19 January 2015|agency=[http://www.tagesspiegel.de/ Der Tagesspiegel]|date=18 December 2014}}</ref> Vorländer does not see Pegida as a movement of right-wing extremists, pensioners or unemployed. The rallies serve as a way to express feelings and resentments against an political and opinion-making elite which have not been publicly articulated before.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Federl|first1=Fabian|last2=Meisner|first2=Matthias|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/hitler-verkleidung-fluechtlinge-als-viehzeug-die-hintergruende-zum-fall-lutz-bachmann/11252882.html|title=Hitler-Verkleidung, Flüchtlinge als "Viehzeug". Die Hintergründe zum Fall Lutz Bachmann|accessdate=22 January 2015|agency=[http://www.tagesspiegel.de/ Der Tagesspiegel]|date=21 January 2015}}</ref>

Revision as of 18:29, 27 March 2015

Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West
Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes
AbbreviationPEGIDA
Formation2014
Legal statusapplied for nonprofit organization status
Location
Chair
vacant
Vice-chair
Rene Jahn
Websitewww.pegida.de

Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West[note 1] (German: Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes), abbreviated PEGIDA and Pegida, is a German right-wing anti-Islam[1][2][3] political organization founded in Dresden in October 2014. It had been organizing weekly demonstrations from October to February against what it considers the Islamization of the Western world, calling for more restrictive immigration rules, particularly for Muslims. It seeks to alter German immigration legislation so that it becomes similar to Australian immigration programmes and Canadian immigration categories. Offshoots of Pegida formed in various countries.

Growing weekly counter-protests all over Germany and other countries started to outnumber Pegida protesters in January 2015. German politicians, clergy and industry leaders have called PEGIDA xenophobic and Islamophobic. Its founder and leader Lutz Bachmann resigned in January 2015 after xenophobic remarks and a photograph of him posing as Adolf Hitler surfaced, which led to criminal investigations.

History

Origin

Pegida was founded in October 2014 by Lutz Bachmann, who runs a public relations agency in Dresden.[4] Bachmann's impetus for starting Pegida was witnessing a rally by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on 10 October 2014 in Dresden,[5][6] which he posted the same day on YouTube.[7] The next day he founded a Facebook group called Patriotische Europäer Gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes ("Patriotic Europeans against Islamization of the Occident")[8] which initially was mainly directed against arms shipments to the PKK.[5]

A few days earlier, on 7 October, a group of Muslims assumed to be Salafists had violently attacked PKK supporters who were gathering after a demonstration against the Islamic State.[9] The same day Yazidis and Muslim Chechens had violently clashed in Celle.[10] On 26 October, out of 5,000 protesters, "at least 400 right-wing extremists went on a rampage in downtown Cologne during a demonstration" by "Hooligans Against Salafists".[5]

First wave of demonstrations

The first demonstration, or "evening stroll" in Pegida's own words,[11] on 20 October 2014 drew only a handful of people.[5][12] In the following days, the movement began drawing public attention and subsequently its weekly Monday demonstrations started to attract larger numbers of people. Among 7,500 participants on 1 December, the police counted 80 to 120 hooligans. The demonstrations grew to 10,000 people on 8 December 2014.[12][13]

During weekly demonstrations on Monday evenings, Pegida supporters have carried banners with slogans including "For the preservation of our culture", "Against religious fanaticism, against any kind of radicalism, together without violence", "Against religious wars on German soil",[14] "Peace with Russia – No war in Europe ever again" and "We are emancipated citizens and not slaves".[15]

On 19 December 2014, PEGIDA e.V. was legally registered in Dresden under register ID VR 7750[16] with Bachmann being chair, Rene Jahn vice-chair and Kathrin Oertel the treasurer. Pegida also formally applied for the status as a nonprofit organization.[17]

Aftermath of Charlie Hebdo and rising tensions

Pegida demonstration on 12 January 2015 after the Charlie Hebdo shooting

While the demonstration on 29 December 2014 was cancelled by the organizers, the movement continued to draw large numbers of participants in early January 2015. After the Charlie Hebdo shooting on 7 January 2015 in Paris, politicians including German ministers Thomas de Maiziere and Heiko Maas, warned Pegida against misusing the attack on Charlie Hebdo for its own political means. On Saturday, 10 January, some 35,000[18] Anti-Pegida protesters came together to mourn the victims of Paris, holding a minute's silence in front of the Frauenkirche.

On 12 January 2015 Pegida organizers exercised their right to do the same in front of a record audience of some 25,000 participants. Facing growing opposition by anti-Pegida protesters, both in Dresden and Leipzig, main organizer Bachmann declared the six key aims of Pegida, which include calls for selective immigration and generally stricter law and order politics but also included anti-EU sentiments and calls for a reconciliation with Russia.[19]

On 15 January 2015 a young Eritrean immigrant, Khaled Idris Bahray, was found stabbed to death in his Dresden highrise apartment. International media correspondents described an "atmosphere of hatred and resentment" and published social media comments by Pegida-sympathizers expressing disdain for the dead Eritrean. Pegida's main organizers rejected any possible connection.[20] One week later, criminal investigations led to the arrest of one of the victim's Eritrean housemates.[21]

Dresden police did not permit the demonstration on 19 January 2015, because of a concrete threat against a member of Pegida's leadership, that resembled an Arabic-language Tweet describing Pegida as an "enemy of Islam".[15] Pegida cancelled its 13th demonstration and wrote on its Facebook page that there was a concrete threat against a leadership member and "his execution was commanded through ISIS terrorists".[22]

Resignations

File:Lutz Bachmann posing as Hitler.jpg
PEGIDA's founder and leader Lutz Bachmann dressed as Adolf Hitler

On 21 January 2015, Bachmann resigned from his responsibilities with PEGIDA after coming under fire for a number of Facebook posts.[23] Excerpts from a closed Facebook conversation incriminated Bachmann as having designated immigrants as "animals", "scumbags"[24] and "trash",[25] classified as hate speech in Germany. He was also quoted commenting that extra security was needed at the welfare office "to protect employees from the animals".[26] A self-portrait of Bachmann deliberately posing as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, titled "He's back!", went viral in social media[25] and was printed on title pages worldwide. On another occasion, Bachmann had posted a photo of a man wearing the uniform of the US white supremacist organisation Ku Klux Klan accompanied by the slogan: "Three Ks a day keeps the minorities away."[23] The Dresden state prosecutors opened an investigation for suspected Volksverhetzung (incitement), Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said the real face of PEGIDA had been exposed: "Anyone who puts on a Hitler disguise is either an idiot or a Nazi. People should think carefully about running after a Pied Piper like this."[26]

One week later, on January 28, media spokeswoman Kathrin Oertel resigned as well, citing "the massive hostility, threats and career disadvantages" as the reason.[27] At the same time four other leading figures of Pegida stepped back.[28] February 2, 2015 Oertel and six other former Pegida members founded 'Direkte Demokratie für Europa' (direct democracy for Europe) to distance [themselves] from the far-right tendencies of Pegida". [29]

Political positions

"Putin, hilf uns, rette uns!" ("Putin, help us, save us!") and diverse far-right slogans on signs and banners

At the beginning of December 2014, Pegida published an undated and anonymous one-page manifesto of 19 bulleted position statements.[30]

  1. Affirms the right of asylum for war refugees and politically persecuted people.
  2. Advocates to include in the German constitution a right and duty to integration.
  3. Advocates for decentralized housing of refugees.
  4. Suggests creation of a central refugee agency for a fair allocation of immigrants among countries of the European Union.
  5. Demands a decrease in the number of asylum seekers per social worker from currently 200:1.
  6. Suggests to model German immigration policies after those of the Netherlands and Switzerland and demands an increased budget for the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees to speed up processing of applications.
  7. Demands an increase in funding for the police.
  8. Demands implementation of all asylum laws including expulsion.
  9. Mentions zero tolerance towards criminal refugees and immigrants.
  10. States that Pegida oppose a misogynic and violent political ideology, but does not oppose assimilated and politically moderate Muslims.[31]
  11. Supports immigration as in Switzerland, Canada, Australia and South Africa.
    Pegida demonstration on 12 January 2015
  12. States that Pegida support sexual self-determination (opposing "early sexualization of children"[32]).
  13. Argues for the protection of Germany's traditionally Judeo-Christian culture.
  14. Supports the introduction of referenda as in Switzerland.
  15. Opposes weapon export to radical and non-permitted groups, such as the PKK.
  16. Opposes parallel societies/parallel jurisdictions, for example Sharia courts, Sharia police and peace judges.
  17. States that Pegida oppose gender mainstreaming, and political correctness.
  18. Indicates that Pegida oppose any radicalism, whether religious or politically motivated.
  19. Says that Pegida oppose hate speech, regardless of religion.

Pegida's specific demands were initially unclear, largely because Pegida has refused to dialogue, calling the press a politically correct conspiracy.[33] Demonstrators have been chanting "Lügenpresse" (liar press) a term which had surfaced during World War I[34] and was used in Nazi propaganda.[11] The use of "Lügenpresse" was so offensive to be picked as un-word of the year (German: "Unwort des Jahres") for 2014, a term chosen by a German panel of linguists every year as most offensive, and a major news item in Germany.[34]

Deutsche Welle wrote in December 2014, that Pegida call Islamism a misogynist and violent ideology.[32][35] In January 2015, The Guardian described Pegida as far-right[11] and The New York Times called Pegida anti-immigrant and that Merkel had repeatedly questioned "the motives underlying its anti-immigrant message".[11] [36] Christian Ehring noting in the Norddeutscher Rundfunk on 22 January that most people in Dresden are officially atheists, summarized Pegida followers as defending religious values, which they themselves do not believe in, against people, that do not live where they are, but of whom the media report, which in turn they consider liar press. [37]

Evidence of connections to right extremist groups include: The Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz Thüringen considers Sügida to be steered by right wing nationalists.[38]

In February 2015 the 19 positions were enhanced and broken down to the ten "Theses of Dresden".[39][better source needed]

Participants and supporters

Pegida Participants in Dresden
Date participants per day
October 20, 2014
350
October 27, 2014
500([40])
November 3, 2014
1,000([41])
November 10, 2014
1,700([42])
November 17, 2014
3,200([43])
November 24, 2014
5,500([44])
December 1, 2014
7,500([45])
December 8, 2014
10,000([46])
December 15, 2014
15,000([47])
December 22, 2014
17,500([48][49])
January 5, 2015
18,000([50])
January 12, 2015
25,000([51][52])
January 25, 2015
17,300([53])
February 9, 2015
2,000([54])
February 16, 2015
4,300([55])

According to Frank Richter, director of Saxony’s state office for political education, Pegida is "a mixed group—known figures from the National Democratic Party of Germany, soccer hooligans, but also a sizable number of ordinary citizens."[12] Werner Schiffauer, director of the Migration Council has pointed out that the movement is strongest where people have hardly any experience with foreigners, and among “easterners who never really arrived in the Federal Republic and who now feel they have no voice.”[33]

In December, Gordian Meyer-Plath, president of the Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz said initial suspicion that PEGIDA might tie in with the riots staged by Hogesa earlier in Cologne did not substantiate, so the movement was not put under official surveillance. He said there were no indications that the organizers were embracing right-wingers. This assessment was contested by the weekly Die Zeit who researched the ideological proximity of PEGIDA organizer Siegfried Däbritz to the German Defence League or the European Identitarian movement.[56] In a Tagesspiegel interview on 19 January Meyer-Plath reaffirmed that the participant spectrum was very diverse and that there was no evidence of radicalization.[57]

Dresden University of Technology (TU) interviewed 400 Pegida demonstrators on 22 December 2014 and 12 January 2015. According to the poll, the main reason of their participation are: dissatisfaction of the politics (54 percent), "Islam, Islamism and Islamization” (23 percent), criticism of the media and the public (20 percent), reservations regarding asylum seekers and migrants (15 percent). 42 percent had reservations regarding Muslims or Islam, 20 percent of those questioned were concerned about the high rate of crimes committed by asylum seekers or feared socio-economic disadvantages.[58] Vorländer does not see Pegida as a movement of right-wing extremists, pensioners or unemployed. The rallies serve as a way to express feelings and resentments against an political and opinion-making elite which have not been publicly articulated before.[59]

A group of social scientists lead by Dieter Rucht from the Social Science Research Center Berlin (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, WZB) collected data both by Flyer and online survey. The WZB highlighted the difficult conditions of the survey, as only 18 percent of the addressee participated in the online survey. The survey of the WZB came in large parts to similar results as Vorländer. According to data of the WZB, PEGIDA is a male-dominated group, the participants are mostly employees with a relatively high level of education. The participants have no confidence in institutions and have sympathy with AfD. In some cases the participants demonstrated far-right and right-wing extremist attitudes. In the conlcusion it is emphasized that Pegida supporters cannot be seen as ordinary citizens since they articulate group-focused enmity and racism.[60][61][62]

On Facebook, the Pegida fanpage has over 150,000 supporters (Updated: January 21, 2015).[63] According to political consultant Martin Fuchs, the fanpage allows the users there to present emotional contents and spread their ideas which are not represented in the mainstream media easier.[64]

In December 2014, representatives of the NPD encouraged people to participate in Pegida rallies[65] The German Defence League and the Islamophobic internet blog Politically Incorrect uploaded a "propaganda clip" which called for participation in Pegida rallies.[66] According to the police, a few hundred violent hooligans have been participating in the Dresden rallies since December 2014.[67] The journalist Felix Menzel supports Pegida with his new right youth magazine Blaue Narzisse.[68]

Reactions

Civil society reactions

Demonstration against Pegida in Munich, December 22, 2014.
Floodlights of Cologne Cathedral being switched off in protest against a Pegida march on 5 January 2015.
Demonstration against Pegida in Cologne on 21 January 2015.

Numerous protests against Pegida and affiliated movements in cities across Germany have drawn up to 35000 demonstrators in Dresden[69][70] and up to 100,000 nationwide.[71]

In protest against a Pegida march, the floodlights of the Catholic Cologne Cathedral were switched off on the evening of January 5.[72] Dresden's Volkswagen plant used the same method of protest.[73]

German tabloid newspaper Bild launched a petition against Pegida, including former Chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schröder, as well as actress Karoline Herfurth and former footballer Oliver Bierhoff.[73]

Polls

According to a survey by the Emnid institute conducted in December 2014, 53% of East Germans and 48% of West Germans showed understanding for Pegida demonstrations. Ordered by political parties, supporters consisted of 86% of all surveyed AfD members, 54% of all CDU members, 46% of all SPD members and 19% of all questioned supporters of Die Linke and Die Grünen respectively.[74] 43% of all Germans participating in the survey thought that Pegida protesters are mainly concerned about the "spread of Islam“. 33% believed that mainly right wing extremists attend their demonstrations.[75]

On behalf of German online newspaper Zeit Online, YouGov conducted a survey from 12 to 15 December 2014. The survey showed that 30% of all 1107 surveyed felt sympathetic for the demonstrations. Another 19% said they were understanding rather than the opposite. 26% approved at least partially of the demonstrations, while 10% showed little sympathy and a further 13% no understanding at all.[76]

A survey by TNS Infratest conducted in December 2014 on behalf of German magazine Der Spiegel showed that 65% of all surveyed German citizens felt that the government did not respond appropriately to their concerns about asylum policy and immigration. 28% disagreed, while 34% observed an increasing Islamization in Germany.[77]

A representative survey by TNS Emnid conducted from 17 to 18 December 2014 showed that 85% of all 1006 surveyed were not willing to participate in demonstrations for Pegida policy. Only 9%, more than half of all surveyed AfD followers, said they were in fact willing to demonstrate.[78]

On 18 December 2014, the Forsa Institute conducted a survey which showed that 67% of all surveyed Germans considered the danger of Islamization exaggerated. 29%, consisting of 71% of all surveyed AfD supporters, felt too strong an Islamic influence in Germany and deemed respective demonstrations justified. 13% said they would participate in protests near their residence. 10%, consisting of 57% of all surveyed AfD followers, would even vote for an anti-Islamic party.[79]

A special report by the Bertelsmann Foundation regarding the Religion Monitor, complemented by a TNS Emnid survey from November 2014, showed that a majority of German citizens considered the Islam dangerous. In consequence, there seemed to be a "strong sympathy“ for „Pegida paroles“. In absolute numbers, 57% of all surveyed thought of the Islam as a danger. 40% felt like "foreigners in their own country“, while 24% stated that they would like to prevent further Muslim immigration. These opinions were not exclusive to any political camps or social classes.[80]

Public debate

Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized Pegida, saying that while everyone had the right to voice their opinion freely, there was no place in Germany for agitation against immigrants,[13] later adding that the leaders of Pegida "have prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts.”[81] The Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière said that among the participants of the mass rallies were many ordinary people who expressed their concerns about the challenges of today's society.[82] Bernd Lucke, the leader of the political party Alternative for Germany, considered most of the positions of Pegida to be legitimate.[83] According to Lucke, the people taking part in these demonstrations did not feel that their concerns were being understood by politicians.[84] Similarly, the Dresden city council fraction of the Alternative for Germany welcomed Pegida's weekly "walks".[85]

Josef Schuster, chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, voiced his opposition to the group, saying that the possibility of an Islamic conquest of Germany would be as "absurd" as a resurrection of the Nazi regime.Schuster described Pegida as being "highly dangerous": “It starts with verbal assault and leads to actual attacks like the one on a planned refugee hostel in Bavaria." He referred to an arson attack on a home for asylum-seekers that was ready for occupation. After the attack, Swastika graffitis were found on the scene. Schuster said that Pegida is a combination of "neo-Nazis, far-right parties and citizens who think to be finally allowed to openly show their racism and xenophobia." He stated that the fear of Islamisit terror was being exploited to disparage an entire religion. For him this was unacceptable.[86]

Aiman Mazyek from the Central Council of Muslims in Germany stated that again and again right-wing extremists gave the public the false impression of a racist Germany. The slogans of the protesters showed that xenophobia and anti-Semitic racism had become socially acceptable.[contradictory][citation needed]

Pegida have been criticized by Lutheran clergy, including the Bishop of Hamburg Kirsten Fehrs.[87]

Bachmann's credibility as a leader has been criticized because he has numerous criminal convictions, including "16 burglaries, driving drunk or without a license and even dealing in cocaine".[12] In 1998 he fled to South Africa to avoid German justice, but was finally extradited and served his 2-year jail sentence.[11][88]

Commentators have attributed the success of Pegida to widespread dissatisfaction with European immigration policies amidst an increasing alienation toward the political elites and the mainstream media.[89] A poll of 1,006 people by Forsa Institute for the German magazine Stern found 13 percent would attend an anti-Muslim march nearby and that 29 percent believed that the marches were justified because Islam was having such an influence on life in Germany.[90] A poll by the Spiegel found a similar result, 34 percent of Germans agreeing with Pegida protestors in that the influence of Islam in Germany is growing.[5]

The Spiegel asked what motives were driving those behind the demonstrations, how much the movement reflected societal beliefs, where its name came from, and how "xenophobia became "PEGIDA's most important mobilizer" by looking at Siegfried Däbritz and Thomas Tallacker, who with eight others formed PEGIDA's core.[91]

Political reactions

In November 2014, Saxony's minister of interior Markus Ulbig (CDU) claimed that foreign criminals stay in Germany too long. He announced the creation of a special police unit to deal with criminal immigrants in Dresden and the rest of Saxony. Investigators and specialists in criminal and immigrant law would collaborate to process foreign criminals in the criminal justice system, and prevent those not eligible for asylum from obtaining the right to stay in Germany.[77] Ulbig admitted that there were a number of criminal acts committed by immigrants near the homes for asylum-seekers, but they were a minority and should not be allowed to undermine the solidarity with the great majority of law-abiding refugees. He said police worked on criminal immigrant cases too slowly.[92]

On January 26, 2015 the US Overseas Security Advisory Council published an online security message entitled "Demonstration Notice Riots/Civil Unrest", stating U.S.citizens in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich may "encounter PEGIDA and counter-PEGIDA demonstrations" on 1/26/15 and February 16 in Düsseldorf, and "should avoid areas of demonstrations".[93]

Reactions from political scientists

Political scientist Werner J. Patzelt[94] from Dresden believes that politicians are clueless when it comes to dealing with Pegida. He says that this points to a serious problem of society, which neither the left wing nor parties of the political middle ground concern themselves with. This allows new social initiatives critical of the Islam and immigrants to form.[95] The demonstrators are normal people approachable by the CDU, if only the party stopped following Vogel-Strauß politics concerning immigration.[96]

Hans-Gerd Jaschke thinks that the demands in Pegida’s position paper stem from the middle class center-right and could as well be the content of CDU/CSU’s position papers.[97] Social psychologist Andreas Zick from the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence (IKG) assesses the party as a “middle-class right-wing populist movement”.[98]

According to right-wing extremism researcher Johannes Kies, Pegida states what many people think.[99] However, he says, the lines are blurred: Although the organizers and participants don’t see themselves as extremists, their views are anti-democratic and derogatory towards certain minorities. They promote statements that draw on prejudices or are stigmatizing for the people in question. Kies says that these opinions are widespread in society and that great anti-democratic potential is erupting there.[100] According to Alexander Häusler we are facing “a right-wing oriented group of enraged citizens”, that “mingles with members of the right-wing scene and even hooligans.”[101] Political scientist Hajo Funke sees a connection between Pegida and the great increase in attacks on asylum seekers in 2014. He says that because politics didn’t react to the population’s fear of ever increasing numbers of asylum seekers, these groups could utilize these fears and fan them further.[102]

In his article for German newspaper Zeit Online, political scientist and historian Michael Lühmann called it “cynical, to want to place Pegida in the tradition of 1989”. The demonstrators in Dresden don’t see themselves standing in the thinking tradition of the extreme right-wing, he says, but they fit the bill for “extremism of the center-ground”, which is far spread in Saxony and for whose “group-based misanthropy … at times the CDU, but prevalently the NPD and as of now the AfD stand” in parliament.[80]

In a similar fashion, historian Götz Aly traces the fact that Pegida were able to form in Dresden back to the city’s history. In one of his columns in the Berliner Zeitung he referred to the Jewish emancipation of 19th century Saxony, where the comparatively few resident Jews were faced with unequally difficult legal obstacles. Aly concluded that in Dresden “freedom, self-aggrandising local presumption and fear of foreigners” have long belonged together.[103]

Political philosopher Jürgen Manemann considers Pegida an antipolitical movement. According to Manemann, political action serves the common good and thus requires politicians to voice especially the interests of minorities. While politics was based on pluralism, Pegida was in fact anti-pluralistic and thus anti-political. In Manemann’s eyes, the movement has neither an appreciation of otherness nor empathy, which he sees as the basic virtue of political action.[104]

Explaining especially those protests against the actually non-existent threat of Islamization from people with middle-class background, political scientist Gesine Schwan referred to results from studies on prejudice. These studies indicate that aggressive prejudices do not originate from those groups met with resentment, but are rather a result of the situation of those who have them. In addition, fear of social decline often seems to be expressed through aggression. This is then directed especially against those minorities which may seem dangerous, but are in reality unable to defend themselves, often due a perceived unpopularity within the respective society. In the first half of the 20th century, it was the Jewish minority who were imputed with plans for world domination. Today, it is the Muslim minority who is accused of plotting an Islamization of Europe.[80]

In an interview about Pegida, researcher on prejudice Wolfgang Benz referred to his his previous warnings about right-wing extremists using the fear of foreign infiltration to their ends. It was not the formation but the attendance figures that really surprised him.[105]

Political scientist and researcher on extremism Armin Pfahl-Traughber considers Pegida demonstrations "a new phenomenon of xenophobia".[106] In an interview, he accused Pegida leaders of fueling "hostility and hatred against people of different ethnicity or religion".[107]

On 5 January 2015, the Council on Migration[108] called for a new general orientation in German society. As in their eyes, migration was controllable only to a limited extent, they suggested an orientation committee. Consisting of politicians and representatives of immigrants and minorities, they should work together in order to analyze and redefine "German identity and solidarity in a pluralist republican society". Their results were to be included in German schools‘ curricula in order to emphasize the historical importance of migration in Germany. In the eyes of the Council, German policy has been influenced for far too long by the CDU‘s guiding principle of "Germany not being a land of immigration". Thus, a concept of integration should include foreigners and refugees in German society. According to the Council, German integration policy should not only focus on immigrants, but also provide courses on integration for groups such as Pegida. Praising German chancellor Angela Merkel‘s distancing herself from Pegida, the Council stressed that an immigration society is a very complex construct.[109]

Political theorist Wolfgang Jäger considers Pegida a part of increasingly right-wing populist tendencies in Europe, in their Islamophobia possibly being the heir to the widespread antisemitism. He claims that the demonstrations themselves expose the movements‘ moderate position paper as a fig leaf for "blatantly unconstitutional xenophobia". Thus, democrats should not sympathize with the movement, as especially their referring to Christian-Jewish values was contrary to their actual demands. Jäger also voiced concerns about the „ghosts of the old nationalism re-entering Germany through the back door“. According to the political theorists, a democracy needs to be measured by how it protects its minorities. The required knowledge of foreign cultures should already be taught in schools. Only in this way it would be possible to understand globalization as a chance for cultural enrichment in the face of global terrorism.[110]

International reactions

The controversy around Pegida sparked reactions from international media as well. In France, Le Monde that Islamophobia divided German society, while Libération and L'Opinion discussed possible parallels to the Front National.[111] Several French and francophone cartoonists published a flyer aimed against a funeral march by Pegida in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015. The signatories - among them a surviving member of Charlie Hebdo's editorial staff – disapproved of Pegida using the mourning to create attention for their own cause. They stated that Pegida symbolized everything Charlie Hebdo had fought against and asked the population of Dresden for more tolerance and to be open for different cultures.[112]

The Times claimed that for the first time since 1945 a populist movement publicly complained about an ethnic minority. This would frighten the establishment. Germany is not used to such large numbers of demonstrators supporting such positions, said BBC News.[113] The Guardian described Pegida as an emerging campaign against immigrants that would eventually endanger tourism.[114]

The New York Times claimed that because of its communist history, East Germany was more xenophobic than the rest of the country. The paper states that in light of the low numbers of Muslims living in Saxony, the fear of Islamization was bizarre.[115]

Russia Today reported comprehensively on Pegida. Their subsidiary Ruptly broadcast several rallies live on the internet.[116]

Turkey's Hürriyet and Sabah reported on Pegida and counter rallies. Sabah interpreted the demonstrations as a “rise of the radical right in Europe”. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu compared Pegida followers with members of the terror organization IS. He said that both had an archaic set of mind and that Turkey was “very concerned about Pegida”. He called the movement a “threat to Turks, Muslims and Germany itself”.[117]

The Arabic news network Al Jazeera primarily reported on counter demonstrations.[113]

Czech newspaper Lidové noviny criticized chancellor Merkel's reaction to Pegida, saying that not the chancellor but the courts decide where to draw the line between malicious agitation and the freedom of critical expression. The newspaper claimed that the protesters aimed at the whole governmental and media establishment because they felt there exists a growing gap between the opinions of the elite and those of an ever increasing part of German society.[118][119]

Offshoots and variations

In Germany

Pegida has spawned a number of smaller offshoots across Germany, including Legida in Leipzig, Sügida in Südthüringen,[38] Kagida in Kassel, Wügida in Würzburg, Bogida in Bonn, Dügida in Düsseldorf,[32] Dagida in Darmstadt[13] and Fragida in Frankfurt.[120] After some internal disputes, representatives of Pegida NRW, an affiliate aiming to operate in the federal state of North Rhine Westphalia, distanced itself from the Bogida, Dügida and Kögida clones in North Rhine Westphalia. The latter were said to be taken over by members of the openly xenophobic right-wing splinter party Pro NRW,[121] The media representative of Pegida NRW Melanie Dittmer was subsequently replaced by Sebastian Nobile, a member of the German Defence League, an anti-Islamist organization modeled after the English Defence League.[122]

In December 2014, rival right-wing forces founded an anti-American Facebook group under the name PEGADA (German: Patriotische Europäer gegen die Amerikanisierung des Abendlandes, or "Patriotic Europeans Against the Americanization of the Occident"), claiming the true problem was not the phenomenon of Islamism but the suspected American forces behind it. On 25 January they held a first rally in Erfurt under the title EnDgAmE (Engagierte Demokraten gegen die Amerikanisierung Europas, or "Committed democrats against the Americanisation of Europe"). Promoted by a number of activists of the Third Position Mahnwachen-Movement, which was largely successful in 2014, by Hooligans against Salafists (Hogesa) and by a Russian news portal[123] they attracted some 1,000 protesters, but were opposed by 800 mostly left-wing counter-demonstrators[124] including Erfurt's mayor Andreas Bausewein and members of labor unions, Jusos and the local Antifa.[38]

International

Pegida-demonstration at Vienna on 2 February 2015

In January 2015, PEGIDA sympathizers held their first rally in Oslo, Norway with around 200 protesters,[125] but this small support quickly collapsed to 25 and by February 2015 Pegida was facing 'complete failure' in Norway,[126] and in March was described by the Norwegian national broadcaster as in 'full dissolution'.[127] In neighbouring Denmark, around 200 protesters marched in the capital, Copenhagen.[128] In the same month, a Spanish branch applied for a protest outside the main mosque in Madrid, which was rejected by government officials.[129] Marches were planned in Switzerland and Antwerp, Belgium but not permitted due to anti-terrorism raids in Verviers one week earlier.[130]

As of 31 January 2015 a 'Pegida USA' Twitter account had about 350 followers described its stance as "Freedom, tolerance, rule of law. Positions of @pegidaUSA may not fully overlap with PEGIDA but are in agreement with stand against totalitarian barbarism."[131] On 28 February 2015, Pegida UK held its first protest in Newcastle upon Tyne, with around 400 attending. Around 1,000 people turned up to oppose, led by MP George Galloway.[132]

In Sweden the first Pegida demonstration in Malmö gathered eight people, and 5,000 opponents.[133][134] When Pegida called a demonstration in Linköping they gathered four persons.[135]

Footnotes

  1. ^ While the majority of English language sources use the term "West", a more precise translation of "Abendland" is the historic term "Occident" i.e. the opposite of "Orient".

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