Supporters
and opponents of a group campaigning against what it sees as the
"Islamisation" of Europe have held rival rallies across
Germany.
There
have been weekly protests by the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation
of the West (Pegida) since October.
A
record 18,000 people turned out on Monday at one rally in Dresden. Continue..
But
counter demonstrations have sprung up and the group has been condemned by
senior German politicians.
Thousands
of people marched in Berlin, Cologne, Dresden and Stuttgart.
In
Berlin, police said that some 5,000 counter-demonstrators blocked hundreds of
Pegida supporters from marching along their planned route.
A total
of 22,000 anti-Pegida demonstrators rallied in Stuttgart, Muenster and Hamburg,
according to the DPS news agency.
But in
Dresden, police said that 18,000 people turned up for just one anti-immigration
rally. The counter-demonstration attracted 3,000 people.
Lights
out
In Cologne, the
authorities switched off the lights of the city's cathedral as a way of warning
Pegida supporters they were supporting "extremists".
"We don't think
of it as a protest, but we would like to make the many conservative Christians
[who support Pegida] think about what they are doing," the dean of the
cathedral, Norbert Feldhoff, told the BBC.
Only about 250 Pegida
supporters showed up in Cologne, compared to thousands of
counter-demonstrators.
Much of the city centre was
also plunged into darkness as lights were switched off at major buildings and
bridges across the Rhine, according to the news agency DPA.
"Today,
there is really a democratic sign being sent and a lot of people in Cologne are
expressing their opinion," said Cologne mayor Juergen Roters.
"They
want to stress that we here in Cologne do not want to have anything to do with
right-wing extremists and xenophobic people."
In
Dresden, carmaker Volkswagen said it was also keeping its
manufacturing plant dark to show that the company "stands for an open,
free and democratic society."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
attacked the movement in her new year speech, saying its leaders have
"prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts".
Kathrin
Oertel, one of the main organisers of Pegida, responded in a speech at the
rally in Dresden. She said that there was "political repression" in
Germany once again.
"Or
how would you see it when we are insulted or called racists or Nazis openly by
all the political mainstream parties and media for our justified criticism of
Germany's asylum seeker policies and the non-existent immigration policy?"
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