Dresden capital of the eastern state of Saxony has a long history of far-right extremism.
By ALEX WINSTONSupporters of the anti-Islam movement PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) attend a demonstration in Dresden, Germany, October 21, 2018(photo credit: DAVID W. CERNY / REUTERS)
The eastern German city of Dresden has declared a "Nazi emergency" with authorities claiming the city has a real far-right problem that needs tackling.A resolution, called Nazinotstand in German, was passed by the city council last Wednesday and councilors stated that "anti-democratic, anti-pluralist, misanthropic and right-wing-extremist attitudes and actions, including violence in Dresden, are occurring with increasing frequency."Max Aschenbach, a councilor for political party Die Partei, put forward the proposal to the council, which was approved by 39 votes to 29, according to local media reports."We have a Nazi problem in Dresden and have to do something about it," said Ansenbach.Ansenbach also said that politicians were not doing enough to "position themselves clearly" against the far-right, the BBC reported.Angela Merkel's CDU party voted against the resolution.Jan Donhauser, chairman of the CDU City Council Group, told the BBC that "from our point of view, this was primarily an intended provocation."Dresden capital of the eastern state of Saxony has a long history of far-right extremism.Saxony has, in the past, been a stronghold of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) and later the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who came second in state elections in September with over 25% of the votes.Dresden is also where the anti-Islam and xenophobic PEGIDA [Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West] movement began in 2014. PEGIDA has proposed in the past that Germany curbs its immigration and that Germans need to "wake up" to the threat of Islamist extremists.
