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German town votes to better protect minorities, declaring 'Nazi emergency'

Dresden, Germany is home to the far-right, anti-migrant group PEGIDA.
Credit: AP
Police officers guard right wing demonstrators during a far-right demonstration in Dresden, Germany, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018 after a man has died and two others were injured in an altercation between several people of "various nationalities" in the eastern German city of Chemnitz on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

City counselors in the German city of Dresden have declared a "Nazi emergency," passing a resolution this week warning that anti-pluralist, misanthropic, anti-democratic and extremist views, and even violence were "occurring with increasing frequency," the German English language news outlet Deutsche Welle reported

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats party voted against the motion.

According to the Associated Press, the motion passed Wednesday was supported by members of the Left Party, the environmentalist Greens, the center-left Social Democrats, the pro-business Free Democrats and a satirical party known simply as The Party.

Dresden is the capital city of the German state Saxony and is where the anti-migrant group PEGIDA formed. As CNN reports, anti-immigrant views are considered high in this part of Germany. Far-right German political party The Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) won nearly 30 percent of the vote this year in state elections after becoming the first far-right party to enter Germany's national parliament in nearly 60 years, back in 2017.

Credit: AP
Police officers guard right wing demonstrators during a far-right demonstration in Dresden, Germany, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018 after a man has died and two others were injured in an altercation between several people of "various nationalities" in the eastern German city of Chemnitz on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

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Max Aschenbach, councilor for the satirist Die Partei (translated to English means The Party), told CNN, "The word 'Nazinotstand' is an exaggerated formulation for the fact that there is a serious problem -- similar to the climate emergency -- with right-wing extremism right up to the middle of society."

Aschenbach says the motion is symbolic, and is meant to raise awareness for a serious threat they see posed by the far-right in Dresden.

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