News / Germany

Anti-Islam PEGIDA leader summoned to court for hate speech

Tuesday, 15 March 2016 5:46 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 15 March 2016 5:45 AM ]

Lutz Bachmann (in blue overcoat), the founder of German anti-Islam PEGIDA movement during a rally in Leipzig, Germany, March 7, 2016 (photo by AFP)

A court in Germany has summoned the founder of the anti-Muslim and anti-refugee movement PEGIDA on hate speech charges, including by calling refugees “cattle” and “scum.”

The court in the eastern city of Dresden, which is the birthplace of the xenophobic group, said on Monday that it had summoned Lutz Bachmann, who stands accused of inciting hatred.

The 43-year-old had posted a series of controversial messages on the Facebook page of PEGIDA in 2015 and had been charged with provoking hatred in October last year.

The court said Bachmann’s comments “disrupted public order” and constituted an “attack on (the refugees’) dignity.”

He is set to appear before a court in April, while two further hearings would take place in May.

PEGIDA, a German acronym that stands for the “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West,” had originally attracted some supporters, but was then caught in a series of scandals that prompted mass resignations among its leaders and its disappearance from the German political scene last year.

The opponents of the far-right anti-Islam PEGIDA movement take part in a demonstration in Dresden, eastern Germany, February 6, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

Bachmann’s overtly racist comments and a series of photos in which he posed as Adolf Hitler were among the reasons why interest in the far-right movement had waned.

However, it has made a comeback amid the massive refugee influx faced by Europe.

The refugees are mostly fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

Germany, one of the most popular destinations for the refugees, registered about 1.1 million of them between January and December 2015. The country is expecting 2.5 million more to arrive over the next five years.

More than 141,000 asylum seekers have reached Europe via the Mediterranean so far this year, while over 440 died on their journeys to the continent, according to the latest figures by the International Organization for Migration.

Many blame Western powers—including Western European countries—for the unprecedented exodus of the refugees from their home countries, where they face violence by militants who receive the support of the West in one way or another.

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