BERLIN — The protest group that shook up German politics and spawned large rallies around the country for and against immigration announced on Wednesday that several of its leaders had resigned.
The group, known as Pegida, the German acronym for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, sprung up in the fall with a few hundred followers, amid questions about its roots and its leadership. This month, as many as 25,000 people showed up in Dresden, the center of the movement, for its weekly marches, though tens of thousands of others have turned out across Germany to counter its anti-immigration message.
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The statement on the Pegida website announcing the two resignations said, “It is not a matter of personalities, but our cause — and that is good and right,” spelled out in capital letters.
