International
The leader and co-founder of the fast-growing German anti-Islam movement PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West) resigned on Wednesday after a photo of him posing as Hitler — and reports that he called refugees "scumbags" — prompted prosecutors to investigate him for inciting hatred.
Lutz Bachmann, a 41-year-old convicted burglar, appeared on the front page of top-selling daily newspaper Bild on Wednesday sporting a Hitler mustache and haircut. Bild and another paper said he called asylum seekers "animals" and "scumbags."
Kathrin Oertel, a PEGIDA co-founder, said his resignation had nothing to do with the Hitler photo but was linked to comments posted on the Internet. "Yes, I can confirm that Lutz Bachmann has offered his resignation and it was accepted," she said. "PEGIDA will go on."
The news came as its Leipzig sister group, LEGIDA, was due to march Wednesday evening after police banned a PEGIDA march in Dresden on Monday because of a threat of an attack.
PEGIDA has attracted tens of thousands to regular rallies in Dresden with its anti-immigrant stance and forced itself onto the political agenda.
Bachmann, who denies he is a racist, heard on Wednesday that he faces a criminal investigation for incitement of racial hatred. State prosecutors in Dresden said preliminary proceedings were launched after the Bild report appeared. The newspaper quoted him as saying the photo was taken as a joke, prompted by a recent satirical book about Hitler, "Er ist wieder da" ("Look Who's Back").
The Dresdner Morgenpost newspaper quoted what it said were Facebook messages from Bachmann saying asylum seekers acted like "scumbags" at the welfare office and that extra security was needed "to protect employees from the animals."
Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democrat leader, said the real face of PEGIDA had been exposed. "Anyone who puts on a Hitler disguise is either an idiot or a Nazi," he said.
Bachmann last week played down a controversial comment he made in 2013, seized on by the media, that "eco-terrorist" Greens, first and foremost former party leader Claudia Roth, should be "summarily executed."
"I am an impulsive person," he said. "I regret I didn't resist my impulsiveness."
Reuters
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