Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) founder Lutz Bachmann has been hit with charges by the state of Saxony for racial hatred for Facebook posts made back in 2014.
Although the Facebook posts were private and were only unearthed by activists trying to discredit PEGIDA in January this year, the state prosecutor claims by using terms such as “livestock” and “scum” to describe migrants, Bachmann was risking causing disturbances of the peace.
Prosecutors are also considering more recent comments by Bachmann, the German ‘anyman’ with no previous experience in politics but a colourful police rap sheet for drug offences, and whether to press charges for them, reports TheLocal.de.
PEGIDA has been an embarrassment for the Germany government, shattering the illusion of harmony over the subject of mass migration and racism, until recently totally taboo subjects. Although Chancellor Merkel and her allies in the media were initially satisfied to ignore PEGIDA, which started out as a number of small, poorly-attended walks through Dresden city centre, as Christmas 2014 approached the movement started to grow dramatically.
After a short campaign, which included turning the lights and power off in cities where PEGIDA was marching, banning rallies under the pretext of counter-terrorism, and targeting anti-PEGIDA propaganda at children, the movement had been all but suppressed by February this year. Yet despite killing the protests off from a 25,000 strong weekly march to just a few thousand eight months ago, the organisation is bouncing back.
Just this week Breitbart London reported on the latest rally which saw 20,000 march against Chancellor Merkel’s plans to settle one million migrants in Germany this year, at which Bachmann announced his plans to create a new political party in Germany to oppose the status quo.
With the sudden renewal of interest in the movement, for the German establishment, the charges against PEGIDA leader Bachmann for comments made in private over a year ago came just in time.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.