(Reuters) German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday her government would step up efforts to deport rejected asylum seekers faster, after hundreds of far-right protesters called on her to resign over her migration policy.
The anti-Islam PEGIDA movement organized the protest against Merkel’s decision in 2015 to leave German borders open to about one million refugees, mainly from Muslim countries.
That caused a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and helped propel the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party into parliament in national elections last year.
The protesters chanted “Merkel must go!” and “get lost” as she arrived in Dresden in the eastern state of Saxony to meet regional lawmakers of her Christian Democratic (CDU) party.
