Second PEGIDA protest in Netherlands, 8 November, 2015. Demoted/ Geronimo Matulessy. All rights reserved.Tommy Robinson has just returned from a Pegida demo in the city of Dresden, eastern Germany. There he had spoken on behalf of the Europe-wide demonstrations against “Islamisation” to be held early in 2016. “Thousands were rallying in Dresden, in the pouring rain. And they’re there every Monday and have been for the past year,” Robinson says proudly. The founder and former leader of the English Defence League (EDL) - who quit the far-right street-movement in autumn 2013 - sounds full of hope about the future of Europe’s “anti-Islamisation” campaign. In that very optimism I sense a deeply worrying crisis confronting European societies.
Pegida (the German acronym for "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West") was formed in October 2014 in Dresden and has been actively organising against Muslims and refugees arriving from outside of Europe. The street-movement experienced a brief downturn earlier this year, but has resurged as a result of the refugee crisis since September. Capitalising on people’s fear of the unknown, especially in a climate of austerity, has brought it dividends.
Pegida has always been associated with violence, with some of its activists and supporters involved in attacks on migrants and ethnic-minority communities. A Munich-based journalist told me that they hear of such attacks on migrant shelters every single week. Most people are appalled by such attacks and feel ashamed that Germany could be associated with xenophobia, racial hatred and neo-fascism. People’s opposition to acts of violent racism was one of the reasons why hundreds of Munich residents, including that journalist, went to the railway station in September to greet Syrian refugees. That spirit of welcome persists.
