Pegida Switzerland

Pegida Switzerland
Pegida Schweiz
Pegida Suisse
Pegida Svizzera
Pegida Svizra
Pegida Helvetia
Formation9 January 2015 (9 January 2015)
TypeAnti-Islam
HeadquartersDresden, Germany[1]
Location
  • Switzerland
LeaderMike Spielmann
Tobias Steiger
WebsiteOfficial Facebook page

Pegida Switzerland is the Swiss branch of the German anti-Islam movement Pegida.[2] It was launched on 9 January 2015, two days after the Charlie Hebdo attacks.[2][3]

History

In January 2015, the spokesperson Ignaz Bearth was accused by the media of having bought likes for his Facebook Page.[4] The reason: Reporter Sebastian Sele from Vice magazine claimed that when he used Stern magazine's Facebook like check tool[5] to see what it would show about Ignaz Bearth's Facebook Page, it showed that 43% of Ignaz Bearth's Facebook Page's likes were from India.[6] According to Marco Lüssi from 20 Minuten, Lutz Bachmann wrote in a Facebook post on 5 March 2016 that Ignaz Bearth "had agreed to leave Pegida months ago and is in no way a representative of our burgher movement."[7] This means that Bearth is no longer welcome as a speaker at any Pegida rallies anywhere in the world.[1] Ignaz Bearth agreed, for "the good of the movement," to step down from his role as spokesperson for Pegida Switzerland.[4]

Mike Spielmann and Tobias Steiger then took over the role of doing official communication with Dresden for Pegida Switzerland.[1] Spielmann and Steiger have plans to make Pegida Switzerland a full-fledged political party "in consultation with [Pegida leadership in] Dresden."[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Lüssi, Marco (7 March 2016). "Pegida Schweiz wirft Ignaz Bearth raus". 20 Minuten. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  2. ^ a b Waldmeier, D. (12 January 2015). "Diese Leute reden an der Schweizer Pegida-Demo". 20 Minuten. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  3. ^ "Charlie Hebdo: Gun attack on French magazine kills 12". BBC. 7 January 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Ignaz Bearth tritt als Pegida-Sprecher zurück". Blick. 16 January 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  5. ^ "Facebook like check tool". Stern. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  6. ^ Sele, Sebastian (12 January 2015). "Betrügt der Pegida Schweiz-Posterboy Ignaz Bearth im Facebook-Schwanzvergleich?". Vice. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  7. ^ Lüssi, Marco (6 March 2016). "Ignaz Bearth zofft sich mit Pegida-Chef Bachmann". 20 Minuten. Retrieved 20 June 2016.