German anti-Islamic movement Pegida to start political party

Far-right group accused of xenophobia says it won’t compete with existing anti-immigrant AfD for votes

Germany’s anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant Pegida movement said Monday it is seeking to found a political party but stressed it would not seek to draw votes from populist far-right group AfD, Alternative for Germany.

The new grouping would be called the Popular Party for Freedom and Direct Democracy, or the FDDV by its German acronym, movement head Lutz Bachmann said at a meeting in Dresden, Pegida’s eastern stronghold.

Bachmann — convicted and fined in May for inciting racial hatred by branding refugees “cattle” and “scum” on social media — insisted he did not intend to stand for the leadership.

The move to form a party comes with authorities mulling a ban for the original association which spawned Pegida which stands for Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the Occident over fears of growing extremism.

Germany's anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant Pegida movement head Lutz_Bachmann 2015 (Metropolico.org, Magichnicht , CC BY-SA, Wikipedia) — Germany’s anti-Islamic, anti-immigrant Pegida movement head Lutz_Bachmann 2015 (Metropolico.org, Magichnicht , CC BY-SA, Wikipedia)

The announcement was made hours before an Afghan refugee attacked train passengers with an axe and a knife, seriously wounding three people in what one official said was a “probable” Islamist attack, highlighting a key Pegida issue. The 17-year-old was shot dead by police and the attack is likely to revive political tensions.

Bachmann insisted the new party would not seek to overshadow the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has polled at more than 10 percent support in recent months.

The AfD was founded as a euroskeptic protest party in 2013 but now mainly rails against Islam and Germany’s openness to refugees, which last year brought more than one million asylum seekers to Europe’s top economy.

“We shall support the AfD in the next elections (scheduled for 2017) and shall only field candidates in a limited number of constituencies,” Bachmann said.

He added that relations between the two far-right movements were mostly good and that “only together” could they serve their mutual cause.

Cracks in the AfD have emerged in recent months, with a leadership split deepening after a row over anti-Semitic comments by one of the party’s lawmakers, who labeled Holocaust deniers “dissidents.”

There are also differences within the AfD on whether to embrace Pegida or keep the movement at arm’s length.