“Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes” – or, Pegida (Germans like acronyms every bit as much as the U.S. does). It translates as Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West (literally, the Occident), and it’s a group that’s been organizing weekly demonstrations in Dresden in the former East Germany. On Monday, they had the largest crowd yet, 15,000 people.
“Muslims are plotting to infect our food chain with their excrement,” said a man in his 60s, who refused to give his name.
Another, a middle-aged woman in a red leather jacket, said she was shocked that “asylum seekers in Germany have expensive mobile phones, while I cannot afford such luxury and others still cannot afford to eat properly”.
Their overall characterization:
Pegida’s growing presence has presented politicians with a dilemma over how to uncouple the strong neo-Nazi element believed to form the core of the protests from ordinary Germans with grievances against the government, who make up the bulk of the protesters.
Almost two-thirds of Germans, according to a poll for news magazine Spiegel by the TNS institute, believe that Angela Merkel’s government is not doing enough to address concerns about immigration and asylum seekers, and 34% think Germany is enduring a process of “Islamisation”.
Which fits with what the German press, or, at least, the major online newsmagazine, der Spiegel, has to say, with its article today focusing on the indecision of the coalition government as to whether to engage the protesters or not, and a further article on the protest itself, painting them as, for the most part, ordinary Germans frustrated with the government, feeling left behind (its Welfare State reputation isn’t entirely accurate, as fairly harsh reforms known as Hartz IV reduced unemployment benefits, though welfare for families with children can still be quite generous), but with an element of extremists/neo-Nazis mixed in (hey – not unlike the communists mixing in and even instigating the anti-Ferguson protests here), and with Hooligan groups taking part. (Did you know that Hooligans, trouble-making soccer fans, are organized groups?) The article also describes a determination by march organizers to be orderly and peaceful. And, ultimately, it comes out of the same concerns that are elevating the new euro-skeptic Alternative fur Deutschland party.
Anyway, I’m now overdue for logging on and getting started with work. Your homework assignment: compare and contrast to the anti-Ferguson road-blocking protesters.
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