Thousands rally at German protest against refugees

Two nooses hung from the scaffold in Dresden with signs saying they were reserved for Angela “Mummy” Merkel and vice-chancellor Siegmar “The Pack” Gabriel.

Heiko Maas, Germany’s Justice Minister, said “people who do that don’t belong on the street, they belong in front of a judge”.

Germany’s anti-Islam party PEGIDA stepped up its attacks on Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday, slamming her as “the most risky woman in Europe” and demanding she resign.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is expected to take in up to a million people fleeing war and poverty this year, sparking anger among anti-foreigner groups and the PEGIDA movement (“Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident”).

PEGIDA, the German acronym for “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West”, has seen a fresh rise in support but rallies remain smaller than its peak of 25,000 in January.

The wooden model could fulfil the criminal offence of disturbing the peace through the threat of crime and the public incitement to criminal activity, said Jan Hille, the public prosecutor in Dresden.

Politicians from Merkel’s ruling coalition of her conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) were quick to condemn the mock gallows with nooses marked as “reserved” for the chancellor and SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel. According to predictions by German media, the country could expect an influx of about 1.5 million refugees in 2015, well over a previously announced official forecast of 800,000.

“A line has been crossed here”, said Michael Grosse-Broemer, deputy floor leader of Merkel’s conservative CDU in parliament.