Pegida draws the last demonstration in Dresden: an end or a fresh start?

Pegida draws the last demonstration in Dresden: an end or a fresh start?

The last demonstration in Dresden took place in a striking turning point in the history of the anti -Islam alliance Pegida on Monday. This farewell was organized after ten years of protests and provocative rallies, which occurred from the movement for the "Islamization of the West". According to reports from a dpa reporter, around 500 people came to the event, while the organizers who originally calculated with 3,000 to 5,000 participants had to report lower numbers than expected. The official police number was not published, but the number of counter -demonstrators was similarly high.

The leader of Pegida, Lutz Bachmann, announced from a truck that this day would mark the final end of Pegida as a well -known organization with the 250th demonstration. Bachmann gave health and financial reasons for the withdrawal and emphasized that the movement would not end completely. He announced that Pegida would return in a new form, but there are still no concrete details about these plans. "We will come back with new formats," he explained and expressed optimistically about the future of the movement.

The origins of Pegida

Pegida, an acronym for "patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West", was launched in October 2014. In the early years, the movement recorded high number of participants in their so -called "walks", which often took place in Dresden in the Monday evenings. At peak times, up to ten thousand people were counted in these protests. In recent years, however, Pegida has attracted a lot of critical attention. In 2021, the movement was classified by the protection of the constitution as extremist. Bachmann, who is considered right -wing extremist and has several criminal records, was already the focus of the security authorities.

The decline in the number of participants and the negative perception of the public put the alliance under pressure, which led to this farewell. It remains to be seen what the announced realignment and the planned new formats will look like. While the protests showed a polarized image of social discussion in Germany, the initial number of supporters were impressive and illustrated the potential for movements that are directed against immigration and Islam.

For more detailed information about the last course of Pegida and the reactions to the demonstration, can be found extensive reporting at www.radiochemnitz.de .