Last night (Monday) I held a speech about my dissertation topic to this crowd in Leipzig:
As you can see, people had very strong feelings for and against my comments, but I think the majority liked it. Actually, what you are seeing here is the "anti-Legida" rally in downtown Leipzig. I was in attendance but didn't hold any speech. For those of you not following domestic German politics, "Legida" is an off-shoot movement of the original "Pegida" mass folk movement based out of nearby Dresden. Before you inevitably ask why anyone would be against such a poorly-named, but harmless-sounding folk movement, let me fill you in on the background.
Starting in October of last year, this teutonic-looking fellow by the name of Lutz Bachmann began organizing a public protest every Monday evening in Dresden under the auspices of an organization he had established named "Pegida". Pegida is an acronym if you were wondering. It stands for "Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes" (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamification of the West). While Herr Bachmann should be congratulated for coming up with a winning name for his movement--it has just the right number of vowels and consonants in the right places to qualify as a word--his movement's aims should not be commended. Capitalizing on recent turmoil in the Middle East (such as the gruesome actions of ISIS which spilled over into Germany) and what is already a major European unease with Muslim immigrants and refugees, Bachmann's Pegida movement calls together all Germans who fear that their western society is at risk of being swept away by a tide of muslim immigrants. In recent formulations of the movement's goals, Bachmann has called for decreasing the amount of accepted Refugees, demanded that the duty to integrate be made a part of the constitution, denounced Islamic 'misogyny' and sharia law' and demanded that Germany generally adopt a stricter immigration policy akin to Switzerland.
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As you can see in the chart above, Pegida's weekly walks quickly gathered steam. In October, only a handful of people showed up at these rallies. But by November, the number had grown to 5,000 or so each week and yesterday that number (in Dresden) was 30,000. Quick explanatory note: you may be wondering what the significance of Monday is. Demonstrating publicly on Monday evenings is an important tradition in East Germany. Back in 1989, a movement began where East Germans would gather on Monday evenings in churches (especially in Leipzig) to express their dissatisfaction with the communist regime. For Germans, this movement is seen as a major catalyst for the fall of the wall and its slogan of "Wir Sind das Volk" (We are the people) is a rallying cry for a very German-style grass-roots ideal of democratic and governmental transparency. Pegida directly evokes this tradition by meeting on Mondays and appropriating this chant (Wir sind das Volk) as an indictment of political elites who they feel no longer listen to the concerns of ordinary Aryans.
But with their massive growth, Pegida now has the attention of all of Germany. For a society very sensitive to any right-wing movement, this is scary stuff. German political elites have been quick to denounce the movement as "Islamfeindlich" (anti-Islamic) and racist. Most observers are quick to point out that its stronghold--Dresden--is home to the least number of non-Caucasian residents anywhere in Germany and that Pegida's unrealistic fears of a Germany where German soon won't be spoken on the street are really stand-ins for a deeper frustration with life. Another important note: Dresden isn't just Pegida's stronghold. It is also the stronghold of contemporary German neo-Nazism. Every year on February 13th large numbers of neo-Nazis gather in Dresden to commemorate the Dresden fire-bombing and to march for a more just world...or something like that. I guess that is an important piece of background information as well. And then there is the Fuhrer himself: Lutz Bachmann. Bachmann served two years in prison (after being extradited from South Africa where he had fled) for burglary, selling cocaine, and driving drunk. Not exactly the best example of citizenship if you ask me.
Up until recently, popular right-wing parties hadn't found fertile ground in Germany. France is well-known for Le Pen's FN and a number of Scandinavian countries sport anti-immigration parties that do fairly well in elections. But as discontent with the EU and anxiety about islamic extremism have boiled over recently, this last election cycle saw the first viable right-wing party in Germany emerge: the AfD. It has been interesting to see how their leaders have been very careful to take a different line than the major parties in talking about Pegida. These protestors are potential voters for AfD and they've been very careful to say that their concerns are legitimate and should be listened to. Uh-huh.
Now, with that background, I can return to the counter-protest last night. Leipzig is a very young city and our numbers far exceeded the new Leipzig branch of Pegida (thus "Legida") marchers (40,000 counter-protestors vs. 7,000 Legida). German students are very politically active (relative to American youth) and I often chuckle about how earnest they are. Instead of the normal potty-language graffiti that one might find in American toilets, one generally only finds left-wing mottos written in German bathroom stalls: "Say No to Racism!" or "No to Fascism" are common. So I wasn't surprised when my tram ride to Leipzig from Halle was jam-packed with what seemed like every college-student in town.
There were a lot of great posters as well. One sign read "Bier trinkt das Volk" ("The People drink Beer!" which in German is a play on "We are the people"), "Gegen die Dresdenisierung Leipzigs" (Against the Dresdenization of Leipzig), and this one below which says "Trailer Parks against ignorant, nationalistic Assholes".
One thing that made the demonstration somewhat interesting to me was the ambiguity surrounding just what the Charlie Hebdo attacks meant for the demonstrations. On one hand, the Pegida people clearly sought to use the attacks to legitimize their movement: if you don't think Islam is threatening for Europe after Charlie Hebdo then you are the crazy one. But on the other hand, I saw quite a bit of Charlie Hebdo signs (Je suis Charlie) at the anti-demonstration and we even held a moment of silence for the victims. For the left, the attacks are mostly meaningful as an example of what happens when fundamentalism, hate, and intolerance are allowed to run wild--charges that are as readily applicable to Pegida's stances as they are to muslims. There's something tragic in the fact that such a morally unambiguous act leaves us with no corresponding clarity as to how to respond politically. We just end up accusing one another of misusing or misunderstanding the incident.
In any case, Pegida (and Legida) won't disappear overnight and there should be many more Monday marches to visit. I suggested to my friends that we should try to mingle sometime with the Legida crowd just to see what they're like. So maybe that will be a future post!
