THE RISE AND FALL OF PEGIDA - SCRIPT Sound up: Wir sind das volk! demonstration daytime Dresden See Tino in crowd. TINO JASCHKE: How many times I have marched with Pegida, I don’t know. But it wasn’t 13 times. I think it would be five times at least. MIRA JASCHKE: It was a shock that my dad walks with Pegida and, I have accepted that he is with Pegida, and we talked about it a lot, but it was difficult for me in the beginning, but now (CRIES AND TURNS TO MOTHER AT THE TABLE) ... when I know that normal people — oh, mom! It’s ok Sweetie” Sound up. Protests FROM THE BREAKFAST TABLE TO THE STREETS, DRESDEN HAS BEEN DIVIDED BY A RISING RIGHT-WING ANTI-IMMIGRANT MOVEMENT CALLED PEGIDA, OR “PATRIOTIC EUROPEANS AGAINST THE ISLAMIZATION OF THE WEST.” THE MONDAY MARCHES, WHICH HAVE ATTRACTED TENS OF THOUSANDS, REFLECT A GROWING, YET MINORITY. INTOLERANCE FOR MUSLIMS. Sound up Tino showing bike room: TINO: These are finisher’s medals. TINO JASCHKE LIVES WITH HIS WIFE AND TWO DAUGHTERS ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY. IN MANY WAYS, MR. JASCHKE REPRESENTS THE SOFTER SIDE OF THE PEGIDA MOVEMENT, WHICH SEES IMMIGRATION AS A PROBLEM THAT IS POORLY ADDRESSED BY THE GOVERNMENT. TINO JASCHKE: It is important that we have qualified people, it is important that people enter the country who accept us as a country. But who don’t later want to question that and want to completely change Germany, to make it like with the systems they left behind. (NAT POP) LUTZ BACHMANN: I would like to give a shoutout to all of our friends across Germany. I greet our branches in Kassel, Leipzig, Dusseldorf, East Friesland, Munich, Rostock, Magdeburg, Würzburg, Braunschweig and Bonn! BUT ON THE STREET, MANY MARCHERS TAKE A HARDER LINE... RENATA FRIEDERHAUSER: They know already they will take over Europe and even the whole world. That’s the plan of all Muslim people. MARCUS BOTIG There’s too many of them here already. That’s the problem with Islam. We are becoming the minority. HANS VOLLANDER: nobody expected so many people would come together almost like a ritual each monday they come together and some of the observers and journalists thought it would be over after a couple of demonstrations, but it wasnt. (CUT OUT THE GUY YOU ADDED HERE) IN 2014 GERMANY RECEIVED OVER 200,000 ASYLUM APPLICATIONS, MORE THAN ANY OTHER NATION. EXPERTS SAY THE SURGE OF REFUGEES FLEEING SYRIA’S CIVIL WAR HAS STIRRED FEAR AND ANGER TOWARDS IMMIGRANTS. NAME WITHHELD (guy with dog): One day we will have so many refugees that we can’t defend ourselves. And we can’t solve the problems of the world. Dilara Karabacak: It’s not something where I am welcome. Home means you must welcome you must be safe. but here i am afraid to go outside on mondays i am afraid to go outside when its dark. Prof. Hajo Funke: The energy is indeed developed in a kind of classical right wing populism. We criticize the establishment, we are the people, but we project our aggressions to scapegoats. // OR: What we also have it an astonishing and dangerous extension of violence against foreigners. In the three months Pegida movement has taken place the amount of acts of violence against migrants and others has double compared to the three months before. LUTZ BACHMANN: I’m talking about the gradual phasing-out of our Christian heritage from our society. It’s already begun in Berlin and in other cities. Shot of Bachmann during protest. THE GROUP’S FOUNDER IS 41-YEAR OLD LUTZ BACHMANN, A DRESDENER WITH A CRIMINAL PAST. BACHMANN RECENTLY RESIGNED FROM PEGIDA AFTER A PHOTO OF HIMSELF POSING AS ADOLF HITLER WAS POSTED ON THE INTERNET. Shot of bachmann during protests. THE FOLLOWING WEEK, SEVERAL MEMBERS OF THE GROUP’S LEADERSHIP ALSO LEFT THE ORGANIZATION, CALLING ITS SURVIVAL INTO QUESTION. Some sound up: BUT WHETHER OR NOT PEGIDA DOES SURVIVE, THE GROUP’S STARTLING RISE AND POPULARITY IN GERMANY HAS CAUSED MANY HERE TO QUESTION WHETHER GERMANY’S DECADE’S OLD REPUTATION FOR TOLERANCE, IN THE WAKE OF ITS DIFFICULT HISTORY, IS BEING TARNISHED. DANILO STAROSTA, CULTURE BUREAU OF SAXONY: If you don’t come from a migratory background, I don’t really think you can know what it’s like if 15,000 people get together and start chanting racist things. Because those are 15,000 people who can pop up in 15,000 different places in a city like Dresden. Fettah Cetin, Kurdish business owner: In the past things were more relaxed, but its becoming worse. // my tenant, his daughter. For 14 years I have watched her grow up. She was like my own child. And every day I support her. And now I read that he is writing “foreigners should disappear“, they should go home, and such phrases. // the explanation is pegida Dilara Karabacak (born in Dresden, Kurdish descent): When I speak another language they cry in the supermarket loud: “Don’t speak another language, you are in Germany!” Its not so good for us young people. Sound up: Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here! PEGIDA’S RISE HAS HAS NOT BEEN UNCHECKED, WITH COUNTER DEMONSTRATIONS MASSIVELY OUTNUMBERING THOSE IN DRESDEN SPROUTING IN OTHER CITIES. Prof. Hajo Funke: Of course Pegida is not good for the reputation of Germany in the world. But on the other hand, its important to know and to hear that the big majority of Germans are eager to help and to support in a kind of liberal culture and accepting the migrants culture especially the asylum seekers out of Syria or Iraq. A RECURRING QUESTION ABOUT PEGIDA, IS WHAT TYPE OF GERMAN MAKE UP ITS RANKS. WHILE MANY REPORTS SAY THE GROUP IS COMPRISED OF NEO-NAZIS OR MEMBERS OF THE FAR RIGHT, RESEARCHERS HERE SAY THAT OVERALL THE NUMBERS OF SUCH PEOPLE ARE RELATIVELY SMALL. Professor Hans Vollander: We were stunned BY THE FACT that most of the people we talked to were middle of the road people. They earn decent money they have a good education. They are not unemployed they are not retired and most of them do not belong to neo-nazi and hooligan groups. Sound up Mira dancing in anti-protest group: HIS DAUGHTER MIRA HAS JOINED THE ANTI-PEGIDA MOVEMENT, AND THEIR SPLIT ON THE ISSUE HAS SOWED A DIVISION AT HOME. (Off camera Q:) But it’s also important to know that your Dad supports you being out there on the street? Mira JASCHKE: Yes, my dad always says both of opinions are right and that I should be there because that is what I think, and that is what I stand for, and so I should be out there, so ... Tino JASCHKE: Stop and catch your breath.” WHAT HAPPENS TO PEGIDA NOW THAT IT’S LEADERSHIP HAS CHANGED IS AN OPEN QUESTION. THE GROUP’S DEMONSTRATION ON FEBRUARY 9 DREW ____ PEOPLE. ONE OF THE GROUP’S DEPARTING LEADERS, Kathrin Oertel, STARTED ANOTHER GROUP THAT SHE SAYS WILL BE LESS RADICAL. COUNTER DEMONSTRATIONS WILL ALSO CONTINUE, FOSTERING DIVIDES BOTH PUBLIC AND PERSONAL: Show Mira at counter demonstration. MIRA JASCHKE: I go to the counter-demonstrations because I want to show that Dresden is diverse and I don’t want to give the neo-Nazis and far-right extremists any platform.”