THREAD: Today the far-right PEGIDA group celebrated its fourth anniversary in the city centre of Dresden. According to latest @szonline estimates, about 7,000 PEGIDA sympathizers gathered, while almost double as many - about 13,000 - participated in counterprotests.
Interestingly, CDU regional governor Michael Kretschmer @MPKretschmer participated in the counterprotests (so did other key politicians, including Dresden's liberal mayor). Kretschmer's presense represents a significant symbolic shift from previous CDU responses to local...
...far-right activism. Most notably, longtime regional governor Kurt Biedenkopf (1990-2002) famously said that the Saxons were 'immune to right-wing extremism'. Currently, there is a debate within the Saxon CDU whether to consider the AfD as potential coalition partner.
Back to PEGIDA: The group announced 'as always terrific speeches of well-known national & international patriots' for today's event. Well, judge for yourself: Guests included EDL founder Tommy Robinson, anti-Islamic blogger Michael Stürzenberger, and Filip Dewinter...
...from Vlaams Belang. AfD politicians were present too, including MP Jens Maier and André Poggenburg, former head of AfD Saxony-Anhalt. Today's 7,000 is much less than PEGIDA mobilized at its peak: Four years ago, some protest mobilized about 20,000 sympathizers.
However, this years' number seems much higher than at last year's third anniversary, when about 2,000 to 3,000 gathered. For their weekly events, PEGIDA still regularly mobilizes more than 1,000 individuals – 'protest rituals' in the words of Vorländer, Herold, and Schäller.
Today's event might indicate that these 'protest rituals' are going to continue. For the most comprehensive English analysis of PEGIDA, see palgrave.com/de/book/978331… - a book by @GSW_TUDresden @ForumMIDEM scholars.
On the rapprochement of PEGIDA and parts of AfD see the @C4ARR blog post radicalrightanalysis.com/2018/10/20/peg… … … - based on a forthcoming chapter with @BerntzenLE
Update: The research group @durchgezaehlt estimates the number of PEGIDA sympathizers at today's event at 3200 to 4100 individuals. That's substantially lower than some earlier media reports and closer to last year's number.
