http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/31/world/merkel-to-attack-anti-immigrant-movement.html 2014-12-31 04:06:30 Merkel to Attack Anti-Immigrant Movement The German chancellor will use her New Year’s speech to urge people not to join the weekly protests in Dresden held by Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West. === BERLIN — Chancellor A group calling itself Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West has mounted weekly protests in Dresden that have swelled in size in the past two months, drawing some 17,500 people Dec. 22. The protests borrow the slogan of East Germans who protested Communist rule before the Ms. Merkel has spoken on the issue before, saying that there is no place in Germany for prejudice and lies and warning citizens not to let themselves be used by the protest organizers. But her New Year’s appeal is much clearer, and comes from someone who grew up in East Germany and can remember the Monday marches that helped topple the “Today, some people are again shouting on Mondays, ‘Wir sind das Volk!’ ” Ms. Merkel says, according to the text of her remarks released by the government. “But what they really mean is, ‘You don’t belong, because of the color of your skin, or your religion.’ That’s why I say to all who go to such demonstrations: Don’t follow those who call for this! Too often, there is prejudice, coldness or even hatred in their hearts.” The chancellor, 60, opens her remarks, recorded in advance for broadcast as 2014 melts into 2015 at midnight Wednesday, by noting that the year just passed would be remembered as one filled with events that one would not have predicted last New Year’s, particularly Russia’s challenge to the European order in Ukraine. “There is no question that we want security in Europe together with Russia, not against Russia,” she says. “But there is also no question that Europe cannot and will not accept a supposed right of the mightier, which does not respect international law.” Europe, she adds, has proved that it can resist attempts to divide the Continent and can act together with “its trans-Atlantic partners.” “This unity of Europe is not an end in itself, but it is the key to overcoming the crisis in Ukraine and applying the might of the law,” Ms. Merkel says, according to the released text. Noting that the She also defends immigration as “a win for us all,” bringing in workers whom the German economy, the largest in Europe, needs to thrive. Political circles in Berlin have been consumed by the debate over immigration and refugees since the Dresden protests began, and several prominent commentators have suggested that the government needs to do a better job of explaining its policies.