The founder of Germany’s anti-Islam movement Pegida will go on trial in April for inciting hatred against foreigners after he referred to them as “cattle,” “garbage” and a “dirty bunch” on Facebook last year.
A spokesman for a Dresden court said Thursday that Lutz Bachmann - the founder of Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West - would appear in court on April 19 to account for his online posts, which prosecutors consider to be incitement.
Bachmann dismissed the charges against him as a politically motivated attempt to “discredit my person and Pegida” in a Facebook post late Wednesday.
Pegida holds weekly rallies to protest the perceived Islamization of Germany as a result of migration from Muslim countries.
It almost disappeared from Germany’s political scene last year amid a series of scandals and mass resignations by its key leaders, including Bachmann.
The group was given a new lease of life in the wake of the November terrorist attacks in Paris and as migration into Europe reached new highs.
Earlier this month, Pegida held coordinated rallies with sister organizations in the Czech Republic, Poland, France, Britain, Latvia and Denmark.