To be expected as the system resorts to crude lies to downplay PEGIDA

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/16/pegida-supporters-mark-groups-second-anniversary-in-dresden

Thousands of protesters have gathered in the eastern German city of Dresden to mark the second anniversary of the anti-immigration and Islamophobic movement Pegida.

Some in the crowd carried flags bearing slogans such as “Refugees not welcome” and chanted “Merkel must go” as they railed against the arrival of almost 900,000 asylum seekers in Germany last year.

An independent research group, Durchgezählt, estimated the turnout at between 6,500 and 8,500 people – far less than the 20,000 who joined the anniversary rally a year ago.

Pegida held its anniversary gathering on a Sunday this year rather than Monday, when it usually holds its rallies, because two public events aimed at countering the group had already reserved the space in Dresden’s old town.

City authorities will hold a festival for residents, and an anti-Pegida group has called a rally at the same time to “send a sign against the hate” spouted by Pegida.

Pegida, an acronym of Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident, was born in October 2014. At its peak in January last year the group attracted 25,000 to its protests, before numbers waned after its founder Lutz Bachmann was caught making overtly racist comments and as pictures of him sporting a Hitler-style moustache and hairstyle surfaced.

In May Bachmann was convicted of inciting racial hatred and fined nearly €10,000 for referring to refugees as “cattle” and “scum” on social media.