PEGIDA's Anti-Islamisation Rallies, Counter-Marches Reach Austria

articipants of a rally of the `Pegida`-Vienna (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West) anti-Islam movement gather in Vienna, Austria, 02 February 2015. Photo: EPA

The German movement Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) held it first rally in Austria on Monday.

However PEGIDA failed to attract as many supporters as it usually does in its marches in Germany, the BBC reports.

Only a few hundred protesters participated in the rally in Vienna, who were significantly outnumbered by both police and nearly 5000 people who gathered in a counter-demonstration.

The movement, which originated in the German town of Dresden last year, has spread both around the country and abroad.

It has held marches on a smaller scale in the Czech Republic, Denmark and Norway and has sympathisers in Spain, Switzerland and Sweden.

The messages espoused by PEGIDA are not unknown in Austria, as the far-right Freedom Party, which won 20 % in the 2013 general election, campaigns on a similar platform.

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