Dresden

Shocked German officials on Feb. 22 condemned two "disgusting" incidents involving anti-migrant mobs in the ex-communist east of the country, including a crowd cheering a blaze at a planned refugee shelter.

Support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative alliance has slumped to its lowest since July 2002 as opposition over her liberal refugee policy grows, a survey showed on Jan. 31, while a right-wing populist party polled a record high.

An anti-refugee demonstration which was held at the German city of Leipz went out of control when hundreds of far-right protesters started vandalizing shops and setting cars on fire.

A group of Pakistanis and a Syrian were violently attacked by about 20 unknown assailants late on Jan. 10 in the German city of Cologne, police said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed that asylum seekers on probation or who committed any kind of crime should be sent back to their countries of origin.

This comes after multiple sex attacks on women in the city of Cologne and elsewhere that took place on New Year's Eve and that were reportedly committed by men of North African and Arab appearance.

The German anti-Islam movement PEGIDA staged its biggest rally in months on Oct. 19, sparked into fresh life on its first anniversary by anger at the government's decision to take in hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East. 

Europe's top human rights watchdog on Oct.1 voiced concern at mounting racism in Germany, citing a wave of far-right, anti-Islam demonstrations at odds with the more recent image of a country ready to open its doors to hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Thousands of people took to the streets of the German city of Dresden on Aug. 29 to send a message of welcome to refugees, after a string of violent anti-migrant protests in the region.

German police sprayed tear gas on several hundred demonstrators throwing bottles and stones at busloads of asylum seekers arriving at an eastern German town in the early hours of Aug. 22 in scuffles which left several people hurt, media reported.
   

After Wolfgang Schaeuble and Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s statements which “froze” the Greek government’s optimism over negotiations, French FinMin Michel Sapin also stated that if a deal was close to being reached, “you’d know about it”.

On the way to the G7 summit in Dresden, Michel Sapin stated that Greece’s time is running out.