Hannelore and Hans both came to the German eastern city of Dresden to send a signal, but that’s where their similarities end.
Hannelore, in her sixties, joined the anti-migrant PEGIDA movement’s first anniversary rally to show she is fed up with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policy to people fleeing war.
Hans, 75, travelled to the city to say that most Germans do not agree with the xenophobic movement.
As PEGIDA -- “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident” -- celebrates its first year in existence, it has also exposed faultlines in Germany that have surfaced with a record influx of migrants this year.
The divide was even clear at the setting of Monday’s gathering.
At the main city square where huge crowds of PEGIDA demonstrators were chanting “Resistance, resistance”, a massive poster was draped over the state opera building with the message: “We are not a backdrop for xenophobic hate”.
The crowds of PEGIDA supporters were estimated at between 19,000 and 20,000 by local media and a university group specialising in rally counts -- but counter-demonstrators appeared to have almost matched their turnout.
“We are here for our children and grandchildren. We are proud to be here and that many people are here. We are glad that people have the courage to speak out,” Hannelore told AFP.
“Pegida is not a brown-shirt movement. Never,” the protester said in reference to the Nazis, adding: “Frau Merkel is driving our country against the wall.”
The disapproval of Merkel’s open-door policy for refugees was clear at the PEGIDA rally, with some demonstrators openly showing support for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s hardline stance to build fences and keep migrants out.
“Orban Yes! Hungary shows how it works,” read one sign held up by a demonstrator, while the Hungarian flag could also be seen in the massive crowd.
Merkel was slammed as a “dictator” by PEGIDA co-founder Lutz Bachmann who declared: “We are Germans, we are a people. We will take our country back.”
“Dresden is the centre of resistance,” he said, sending the people chanting: “Resistance! Resistance!”
But counter-protesters also sought to make their voices heard.
Organisers had called on anti-PEGIDA activists to march towards the city centre, to gatecrash PEGIDA’s birthday party.
Hans, 75, told AFP he made it a point to be present at the counter-rally because “PEGIDA is celebrating its birthday and we think that it is very important for the majority of the population to not join PEGIDA, and to show that they don’t agree with the movement.”
Ahead of the PEGIDA march, Merkel reiterated a call for citizens to shun “those with hate in their hearts”.
“The chancellor has already reacted to such demonstrations in her 2015 New Year’s speech, and I would repeat it here as it is unfortunately still valid: ‘Don’t follow those who have hate in their hearts,” said Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert.