Pegida

Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (German: Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes), abbreviated Pegida (German: [peˈɡiːda]; stylised in its logo as PEGIDA), was a German, anti-Islam, far-right extremist political movement. Pegida believed that Germany was being increasingly Islamicised. Pegida wanted to curb immigration into Germany and it accused the authorities of failure to enforce related laws. Starting in October 2014 in Dresden with hundreds of participants, the peaks in 2015 and 2016 attracted over 20,000 supporters, often accompanied by counter-demonstrations. In 2015, Lutz Bachmann, the founder of Pegida, resigned from the movement after a doctored photograph appeared where he appeared to be posing as Adolf Hitler and making racist statements on Facebook. He was later reinstated. Activity started to decline by 2018, and soon after it nearly ceased all operations until its formal dissolution in 2024. Though nationalism was a central feature, Pegida offshoots have formed in various countries. It was a grassroots part of the counter-jihad movement.