Berlin grapples with anti-foreigner movement

DRESDEN, Germany: Germany’s Nazi past has so far prevented the far-right gaining a lasting political foothold but the country now faces an emergent populist movement akin to those in other European countries, analysts say.
Growing weekly anti-immigrant rallies against the supposed “Islamisation” of Europe that drew a record 25,000 people Monday have prompted soul-searching and rekindled a debate about German identity.
The marches under the so-called PEGIDA banner “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” in the eastern city of Dresden have been driven by a refugee influx from conflict-wracked states such as Syria to swell quickly from just a few hundred people in October.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed that “Islam is part of Germany” in a firm riposte to PEGIDA and urged people not to follow those with “hatred in their hearts”.
“In Germany, we now have a German National Front France’s far-right party,” Frank Richter, head of Dresden’s civic education centre, told AFP.
“We’re seeing the emergence of something that other European countries have had for a long time already, a movement that’s very conservative in its ideas, or even nationalist,” he said, referring to far-right groups in Scandinavian countries, Austria, the Netherlands and France.
The emergence of PEGIDA as a populist movement has been strengthened by tentative efforts to build bridges with the upstart anti-euro party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which last year notched up successful showings in state elections.
Although several known neo-Nazis have been spotted in the PEGIDA crowds, the vast majority of supporters are disenchanted citizens with an array of gripes.
A study by Dresden University released this week and conducted at three demonstrations in December and this month among around 400 participants, suggested the typical PEGIDA supporter was middle-class and well-educated.
The main driving force for getting people to join the rallies is “a general dissatisfaction with the political system”.
Dresden’s Monday marches -- which call for stricter asylum rules at a time when Germany has become Europe’s top haven for people fleeing conflict -- have sparked smaller clone protests in other cities, as well as often larger counter-demonstrations.