Big Success and Big Disaster

+++ up to 20000 people join „Heart not Hatred“ marches + major clashes due to Pegida participants + Police tactics end in horrendous disaster +++

On the day after the marches and demonstrations around the first anniversary of the racist Pegida marches in Dresden, the organisers of the counter-campaign “Heart not Hatred” draw mixed conclusions from October, 19th. Tens of thousands of people claimed the streets in the name of humanity and sent a strong signal against the hatred that was once again spread from the Pegida stage. This notwithstanding, violent participants of the Pegida marches caused heavy clashes, and riot-like scenes occurred between Nazis, Hooligans and riot police.

Josef Sternfeld, spokesperson of the „Heart not Hatred“ campaign said: “We are happy that such a large number of Dresdeners, together with people from all over Germany, joined our demonstrations and raised their voices. Overall, an estimated 20000 people followed our call and joined our various events. That it took an entire year of hate-speech, combined with an increasing number of violent attacks originating from the Pegida-movement especially in recent weeks, to reach this number, is giving us pause, however. Yesterday saw demagogic hate-speech being delivered from the Pegida stage yet again and various red lines have once again been crossed by a wide margin. With this in mind, we hope that Dresdeners will continue to deliver a clear message over the following weeks and will continue to decisively oppose Pegida.”

All organisers agreed in their evaluation of yesterdays' police operations, which could only be described as a combination of being overwhelmed with the situation while employing wrong tactics to cope with it. The extreme hate-speech from Akif Pirinçci alone should have been more than enough to cancel the Pegida rally on the spot. That this didn’t happen raises the question whether the authorities have already surrendered to the hatred being disseminated by such a large group of people.

Silvio Lang, spokesperson of the alliance “Dresden Nazifrei” said: “It is once again the home secretary of Saxony, Markus Ulbig, who is politically responsible for the catastrophic police work last night. His officers were too few in numbers, badly prepared and followed the wrong tactics. According to multiple accounts, they repeatedly created dangerous situations instead of defusing them. The Postplatz-Concert, for example, an officially declared and approved event that was frequented by families with small children and elderly people, had to be abandoned altogether, as participants were forced to run from attacking Hooligans and Nazis. No police whatsoever was present to safeguard the concert and many Pegida-participants left their rally in a rather uncontrolled manner. Multiple sources suggest that police forces deliberately opened up previously secured areas around the “Zwingerteich” and thus enabled violent Pegida participants to reach counter demonstrants.

The organisers expect a thorough investigation by the saxon government into the reasons last nights' events and a clear statement regarding the violence that originated from right-wing Hooligans and other Pegida participants. All organisers of “Heart not Hatred” will discuss possible future events in due course. “In light of last nights’ events and the development of the Pegida movement, we deem it necessary to continue to stand up for humanity and protest the racist propaganda occurring in Dresden every Monday,” both Sternfeld and Lang concluded.