PEGIDA supporters holding their first rally in Sweden were outnumbered by counter- demonstrators in the city of Malmo
ADVERTISEMENTAn offshoot of the PEGIDA movement has held its first demonstration in Sweden.
Only a couple of hundred supporters turned out in the city of Malmo, they were greatly outnumbered by counter-demonstrators who surrounded them.
Police were on hand to keep the two sides apart.
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One woman demonstrating against PEGIDA accused the group of being racists and told a reporter that even though PEGIDA denied it she didn’t believe them, stressing they didnt support equality among people either.
PEGIDA which began in Germany, stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West.
Its Swedish organiser Henrik Rönnquist said the protest was to call for immigration restrictions to be tightened..
“It is not about racism, not about throwing immigrants out of the country…it is about our values, traditions.It is all about that we are very fond of our country.”
In Sweden the number of asylum seekers jumped between 2012 and 2014 from roughly 45,000 to 80,000, with Syrians constituting around half of them.