Germany's biggest-selling newspaper, Bild, yesterday ran an open letter signed by 50 prominent Germans calling for an end to what it sees as rising xenophobia, after thousands of supporters of the far-right group Pegida took to the streets in its biggest rally so far against Muslim immigration.
The "No to Pegida" appeal, which ran on pages 1-3 of the tabloid and at the top of its website, featured figures ranging from the former Social Democrat chancellor Helmut Schmidt to the former national football team captain Oliver Bierhoff condemning the protests.
Pegida has been holding weekly Monday-night marches since October, with the highest turnouts in the eastern city of Dresden. A record 18,000 people took to the streets of Dresden on Monday. Bild deputy editor Bela Anda wrote in an editorial to accompany the open letter: "They [the signatories] are saying no to xenophobia and yes to diversity and tolerance. We should not hand over our streets to hollow rallying cries."
Prejudice, chilliness, hatred
Chancellor
Angela Merkel
called for people to turn their backs on Pegida in her new year speech, saying the group was “full of prejudice, a chilliness, even hatred”.
Some Dresden protesters voiced their frustration at Dr Merkel’s condemnation, with one Pegida organiser telling the crowds her speech amounted to “state repression”. But elsewhere in Germany, counter-demonstrations for the first time far outweighed the anti-immigrant rallies, with about 30,000 taking a stand against Pegida marches in Stuttgart, Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin.
In Cologne, church authorities turned off the lights of its Gothic cathedral, one of Germany’s most popular tourist attractions, to prevent the protesters using it as a backdrop.
The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Dresden’s opera house, the Semperoper, the carmaker Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg and numerous museums, public buildings and private homes across the country were also plunged into darkness.
Pegida mindset
Counter-protesters in Dresden – who numbered 4,000 to Pegida’s 18,000 – gathered in front of the state theatre wearing fluorescent safety vests and carrying brooms, in a symbolic act of wanting to rid the city of what they called the “Pegida mindset”.
A leading German civil rights activist called for dialogue between politicians and supporters of the group. Frank Richter offered to hold a meeting in Dresden where he would act as a mediator between Pegida supporters and mainstream politicians, arguing that the protesters' frustrations and their lack of trust in government must find an outlet in constructive discourse.
"We are clearly dealing here with a whole array of problems," said Richter. "From a lack of understanding in our political system to a loss of trust in institutions. People don't feel they're being listened to enough. They feel they're being talked down to. They don't understand the way the asylum law is applied." – (Guardian service)