The New Years Eve Cologne attacks, where around 90 women were victims of coordinated sexual assault and robbery by men of “Arab or North African” origin, caused a rise in temperature in the rhetorical climate surrounding the influx of refugees to Germany. Statements by actors with profoundly divergent agendas, such as Angela Merkel and Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the west) converged when making explicit connections between the alleged cultural values of refugees and the Cologne attacks. In her statement following the events, Angela Merkel expressed concern about patterns of behaviour by “groups of people who do not respect women” and stated that “cultural coexistence must be continually discussed”. On January 4th, 18.000 Pegida supporters, an unprecedented number, took to the streets in Dresden. The protesters were reacting to the events in Cologne, which they see as a result of the arrival of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa and the rising influence of Islam in German society.
2000 Pegida supporters protesting in Dresden on February 6th. Caruso Pinguin/Flickr. Some rights reserved.
