PEGIDA demonstrators march with photos of victims ‘killed by foreigners’ in Germany (VIDEO)
The German city of Dresden was the latest scene of a protest by the anti-immigrant group PEGIDA, which marched through town carrying huge photos of people they say were killed by foreigners.
Footage from the scene shows the PEGIDA protesters peacefully walking down the street on Monday, some carrying the pictures and names of victims who have allegedly been killed by immigrants.
Others held German flags and banners that read “Merkel must go!” One person was seen on the sidelines with a sign addressed to Amazon's digital assistant. “Alexa, make Merkel disappear,” it read, prompting laughter and applause from marchers.
One person, a 65-year-old man from Dresden, was arrested at the protest, after being accused of attacking a journalist during demonstrations in Chemnitz last Saturday, according to Radio Dresden.
Rallies were also held in other cities across Germany on Monday. The demonstrations came on the heels of unrest in Chemnitz, after a 35-year-old German man was fatally stabbed in a knife attack. Two suspects, a 22-year-old Syrian man and a 21-year-old Iraqi man, were arrested in connection with the incident.
But while the anti-immigration rallies – led by the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the anti-Islam PEGIDA, and the right-wing group 'For Chemitz' – have slammed Merkel's liberal immigration policy, others have staged counter-protests in the city to fight for the right of asylum seekers to stay.
Counter-protests in Chemitz on Saturday, which took place under the title 'Heart against Hatred' were supported by Germany's mainstream parties, including Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the Left Party. Fierce clashes between the two sides led to 11 people being hospitalized on Saturday.
Anti-immigrant sentiment has grown in Germany since the 2015 refugee crisis, which saw Germany accept more than one million, mainly-Muslim, asylum seekers.
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