Tommy Robinson: inside the new wave of anti-immigration protest coming soon to Britain
Late Monday night in Dresden, Germany, former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson gave a speech to a large group of Pegida supporters. He told the crowd that he’s been working with nationalist groups across Europe in order to coordinate a Europe wide movement that seeks to, in his words, counter the "Islamification of our countries". The first demo, he said, will be taking place on February 6, 2016, in at least 12 European countries simultaneously, all marching under a single banner: ‘'Save our Country. Save our Culture. Save Our Future."
"We have no problems with foreigners: there are half a million in the Czech Republic. But this culture is not compatible with ours."
President Milos Zeman
I’ve been following Tommy for the last few months for my next book, Radicals. After he left the EDL a couple of years back, he spent time in jail for mortgage fraud, and had tired of running a near uncontrollable street-based movement. He joined the Quilliam Foundation, an anti-extremism think-tank, but that petered out. The end of his licence period for the fraud case coincided with the refugee crisis, and he decided to get back involved in street politics. He still thinks Islam poses a real and growing risk to the culture and identity of Europe, and that the refugee crisis is bringing this forward.
On November 17, I was with Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – as he travelled to the Czech Republic to meet representatives from Pegida and a similar Czech group called "Bloc Against Islam" (which grew out of the "Czech Defence League", modelled on its English equivalent) to get them to sign up to this idea. Robinson was due to speak at a rally partly organised by the Bloc, but did not because at the last moment a new speaker was announced: the country’s President Milos Zeman, who is an outspoken critic of Islam, immigration and the EU. Six thousand people turned out in Prague to listen.
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