Droves of new immigrants in Europe are creating tension and unrest throughout the continent.
The arrival of thousands of immigrants from the Middle East and Africa has created social unrest in Europe. On Saturday, the PEGIDA movement took to the cities of Germany protesting against the move of allowing the immigrants into Europe.
Anti-Islam Movement PEGIDA Protests Across Europe[/tweetthis]
The migrants have been allegedly implicated with the issue of assaulting women on the New Year’s Eve in Cologne. Such actions have made the PEGIDA movement to criticize the German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s move to welcome the immigrants in Germany.
The PEGIDA movement bears its roots in Eastern region of Germany, and it was formulated in the year 2014 at Dresden city. PEGIDA is an acronym for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West. Why was the movement formed? The PEGIDA movement was established with a sole purpose of creating awareness among its members about the Germany risk of being controlled by Muslims.
Speaking during the protest, Siegfried Daebritz a member of the movement said: "We must succeed in guarding and controlling Europe's external borders as well as its internal borders once again." Hundreds of counter-demonstrators also marched through Dresden saying "Solidarity instead of exclusion," with posters bearing the words "No place for Nazis."
In the year 2015, there have been an increased number of rallies organized by the Far-right groups in their effort of passing their anti-immigrant message. The number of protesters was estimated to be more than 8,000 although the police in Dresden refused to give the accurate number of protestors.
Other cities that experienced similar protests include; Amsterdam, Birmingham and Prague. In Czech Capital Prague, more than 2,000 demonstrators from both sides held demonstrations and the police had to intervene when chaos arose from the two groups.
According to the police report, there was an attack in one of the centers that receive refugee’s donations. It’s believed that about 20 masked assailants threw Molotov Cocktails thus leading to immediate evacuation of the affected people and one person was injured in the process.
The Poland’s Far-right Ruch Narodowy movement also held a similar protest in the streets of Warsaw. They were carrying Polish flags saying “England and France are in tears, that’s how tolerance ends.” speaking to the protestors, Robert Winnicki, leader of Poland’s far-right Ruch said, “We’re demonstrating against the Islamisation of Europe, we’re demonstrating against immigration, against an invasion.”
Other countries that have strongly been opposed by their move of accommodating many refugees include: Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Poland.