On Monday evening, February 13, demonstrations commemorating the 78th anniversary of the destruction of Dresden in World War II took place in the city center. Among the demonstrators were the Left and the extremist movement Pegida, which has been repeatedly linked to the Kremlin.
Police with a large contingent secured the events in Dresden. According to the Elbestadt police department, their personnel intervened to separate the different demonstrators.
According to the police, five preliminary investigations have been opened – including for dangerous bodily injuries, breaches of the Assemblies Act and damage to property. In addition, several people have been identified. They are accused of violating the Assemblies Act. Around 1,200 officers were on duty, including colleagues from Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia and the federal police, police said.
“Due to what happened at the rally, they were able to separate the different camps and guarantee freedom of assembly with a protest that could be heard and seen,” summarised Dresden Police Chief Lutz Rodig.
Since May 2021, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has been tracing Pegida as a “proven extremist organisation”.
The movement, whose name translates as “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamicisation of the West”, was created after a massive wave of migrants in 2015. The number of supporters has been decreasing as the number of migrants has fallen.
Right-wing extremists have long misused the Dresden commemoration for their own purposes and want to show the guilt of Germany in World War II by marching. Time and again, protests against this appropriation arise. The centrepiece of the commemorative event is the living chain as a message of peace and reconciliation, to which thousands of residents flocked again on Monday.
Source: Blick
