Lutz Bachmann's comments at today's Pegida rally

Pegida founder Lutz Bachmann wants to turn it into a political party.

Watch it here

Lutz Bachmann opened the rally at 6:45 p.m. He reads PEGIDA's official statement on yesterday's election. [Edited automatic translation - may be some errors]

We hereby congratulate the AfD on their grand performance in all three state elections. This success is a clear signal to the policies of the Merkel government and hopefully the beginning of a change in policy towards a policy for our own people.

As you can see by the turnout, the AfD and of course PEGIDA managed, by tireless educational work, to inspire some of the people who were lost as voters long ago, to come back and participate in politics.

But!, this brilliant success is not only a reason to celebrate, but also a clear mandate! Now it must take the right and deliver in parliament!

The AfD is now in 3 more national parliaments; in fulfilling their duty it is now the case that PEGIDA is more important and necessary than ever.

It is often the case in history, that former “fighters for the people” have been transformed by the system very quickly after commencing their cushy positions. They swim with the tide to protect their salaries and posts.

PEGIDA has a duty here, for several reasons:

First, in order for the AfD not to be the victim of this kind of development, but to keep its promise to fight and work in our best interests as an opposition party (it is difficult but they have to try).

Secondly PEGIDA is now more important than ever to give strong support to the AfD parliamentarians in these states, helping to give them a better negotiating position.

Third, as an independent conservative party (movement) that sees itself as a “supervisory” or “thorn in the flesh”, PEGIDA can ensure that the AfD does not stray from the course! This course has already been compromised by statements by Ms. Petry, who suddenly caved in when it came to religious circumcision of children and child welfare protection, by this genital mutilation being under the protection of religious freedom.

For PEGIDA, genital mutilation is intolerable!

[I am not sure if the rest is part of the official statement or not, but I'm guessing it's not. -cy]

PEGIDA takes a hard line to halt the rapidly advancing Islamisation of Europe. At this point, we have to find fault with a weakness in AfD, so it is imperative to create a PEGIDA party as a reliable partner who brings the necessary counterweight to their side.

We want to unite, not divide, and there are many voters who do not trust the AfD because of incidents along the way such as at the Munich Islamic Center. (?) These people tend to trust PEGIDA because for 19 months now we did not break or bend, despite massive discredit, defamation and demonization by the media and politics.