Ex-general on trial for anti-migrant protest

Europe

Ex-general on trial for anti-migrant protest

admin

February 9, 2016

Extreme-right activists and supporters of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West), demonstrate in front of the train station in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016. Hundreds of extreme-right activists demonstrated Saturday to "save" Calais from homeless migrants inundating the French port city in hopes of crossing the English Channel to Britain — Extreme-right activists and supporters of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West), demonstrate in front of the train station in Calais, northern France, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016.

A retired general who once led the French Foreign Legion will appear in court after he was arrested for taking part in a banned anti-migrant protest in Calais.

Christian Piquemal and around 150 militants from anti-Islam and anti-immigration group Pegida gathered Saturday in the northern French city to chant slogans such as “We must not let Calais die. Calais is part of France.”

Police dispersed the rowdy protest with tear gas.

Calais has been a focal point for migrants who want to slip into Britain via the Channel Tunnel. Several thousand have been living there in slums for months.

The demonstration was one of several around Europe Saturday amid growing tensions over the massive influx of asylum-seekers to the continent.