(AFP) Thousands of opponents and supporters of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s immigration policy marched Saturday through the eastern city of Chemnitz after a wave of racist violence that followed a knife killing.
The rallies, which drew 8,000 people according to police, ended peacefully although there was palpable tension at times during the evening.
Far-right protesters paraded with large portraits of victims of attacks perpetrated, they claimed, by asylum-seekers.
Some chanted “Merkel must go” and “We are the people” while waving German flags.
Anti-fascist demonstrators, meanwhile, brandished banners reading “Chemnitz is neither grey nor brown” and “Heart instead of hate.”
