Leader Edwin Wagensveld Headquarters Dresden, Germany Affiliation Fortress Europe | Founded 11 October 2015 Ideology Anti-Islamisation | |
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Pegida Netherlands is the Dutch branch of the German movement Pegida. It had its inaugural rally on 11 October 2015 in Utrecht. Those in attendance included Lutz Bachmann, Siegfried Däbritz, and Tommy Robinson.
Pegida Netherlands is a signatory to the Prague Declaration and participated in the Europe-wide demonstrations on the 6th of February 2016. On 20 February 2016, Edwin Wagensveld, leader of Pegida Netherlands, was arrested for wearing a pig hat during a demonstration in Ede. He was in police custody for an hour. He was arrested a second time that month at Amsterdam city hall on 27 February 2016 for using the Pegida logo, which shows a swastika being thrown into a trash can (logo shown right). The city said, "The use of swastikas will not be tolerated, even if they are included in a protest sign or other form of expression where the National Socialist ideology is rejected, or in any other manner of speech whatsoever." That day numerous members of Pegida Netherlands were wearing pig hats.