Separate rallies back, slam refugees in Germany

Several thousand people have taken part in a rally in the German city of Munich to commemorate the victims of a recent terrorist attack and show support for refugees, whom far-rightists have been collectively blaming for the incident.

Civil rights organizations joined the Thursday rally, which had been organized by the Bellevue di Monaco, a newly-founded residential and cultural center in Munich for unaccompanied youth refugees.

During the rally, the protesters denounced the recent surge in racism and xenophobia in the country and called on German residents to embrace asylum seekers.

The ralliers held banners reading, “Welcome refugees” and “Education instead of fear.”

Meanwhile, protesters from the far-right wing party Die Rechte and the Volkstreue ausserparlamentarische Opposition (VAPO) movement gathered in the city of Dortmund to stage an anti-refugee rally on Thursday.

The protesters, who were waving red and white Westphalia flags branded with the German Imperial Eagle, held a banner reading, “Stop asylum misuse. Deport illegal immigrants.”

The rallies were held following a terrorist attack in which a 40-ton truck was rammed into a Christmas market near Berlin’s busy Kurfuerstendamm shopping street on Monday evening, killing 12 people and injuring 50. A Polish citizen was also found dead in the vehicle.

On Wednesday, German authorities issued an arrest warrant for Anis Amri, a rejected 24-year-old Tunisian asylum seeker, named as the suspected assailant at large in the terrorist attack, for which the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility.

Meanwhile, police arrested two brothers on suspicion of planning to attack another one of Germany’s shopping centers.

SS