Germany’s PEGIDA leader steps down after ‘Hitler selfie’

The leader of the fast-growing German anti-Muslim movement PEGIDA resigned on Wednesday after a photo of him posing as Hitler, and reports that he called refugees “scumbags”, prompted prosecutors to investigate him for inciting hatred. Lutz Bachmann, a 41-year-old convicted burglar, had appeared on the front page of top-selling daily newspaper Bild on Wednesday sporting a Hitler moustache and haircut. PEGIDA has forced itself onto the political agenda with its anti-immigrant slogans that have attracted tens of thousands to regular rallies in Dresden. Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly condemned PEGIDA and its protests.

PEGIDA will go on.

Kathrin Oertel, another PEGIDA co-founder

Dresden’s public prosecutor was investigating whether to open a case against him on charges of incitement to hatred. A protest staged by a separate group in the eastern city of Leipzig met with violent counter-protests Wednesday. Police said some among the 20,000 counter-protesters tried to break through barriers protecting the route where about 15,000 supporters of the group, calling itself LEGIDA, were marching.

Anyone in politics who poses as Hitler is either a total idiot or a Nazi. Reasonable people do not follow idiots, and decent people don’t follow Nazis.

Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel

Europe PEGIDA