While their efforts were denounced by politicians and celebrities, “some 18,000 people attended one anti-immigration rally in Dresden on Monday,” challenging what they see as the “Islamization” of Europe. In the following days, counter marches and protests have sprung up in different German cities.

+ NYT: “The turnout more or less equaled that of late December, before Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans in her New Year’s address to shun the rallies and their organizers, who she said had ‘prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts.'”