The founder of far right anti-Islam group Pegida has been barred from entry to the UK and deported from Stansted airport.

Lutz Bachmann, who has led anti-immigration marches of tens of thousands of people, landed at Stansted airport on Saturday night.

He was detained and subsequently expelled from the UK on Sunday morning.

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The Home Office told The Independent Bachmann was refused entry on grounds his presence in Britain was not in the interest of the public good.

“Border Force has the power to refuse entry to an individual if it is considered that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good,” said a spokesperson.

Supporters say Bachmann was due to speak alongside Tommy Robinson – the former English Defence League leader who founded a subsidiary branch of Pegida in the UK – at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park on Sunday.

The 45-year-old founded Pegida, which stands for “Patriotic Europeans against Islamisation of the West”, in October 2014 to demonstrate opposition to plans for 14 refugee centres in Dresden, Germany.

Branded “Nazis in pinstripes”, the group has been widely accused of racism, fascism and xenophobia.

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Bachmann stepped down from his official role as leader in January 2015 after a picture of him dressed as Hitler surfaced on Facebook – something he dismissed as a “joke”. However, he then capitalised on a resurgence of concerns around a migration influx and returned to his post after the outcry had subsided a few months later.

According to the Sachsische Zeitung newspaper, Bachmann has several criminal convictions – 16 burglaries, driving drunk or without a licence and dealing cocaine.

In 1998, after Bachmann was sentenced to a number of years in prison, he fled to South Africa but was deported back to Germany.

A spokesperson for anti-racism campaign Hope Not Hate told The Independent they were not surprised Bachmann was refused entry to the UK.

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“Bachmann is a multiply convicted racist, drug dealer and burglar who, like Tommy Robinson, has made his name as a prominent Islamophobe,” they said.

“Far from being denied a chance to air their views, as they often like to falsely claim, these extremists have abused freedom of speech and social media platforms to spread and push toxic views which, as Britain’s most senior anti-terror police officer has warned, are akin to how jihadi hate preachers like Anjem Choudary pushed their vile beliefs in the past.

“These extremists are two sides of the same coin and need each other – which we, the ordinary Britons, do not.

“In the wake of the Government’s decision to refuse entry to Lauren Southern, Brittany Pettibone and Martin Sellner last week, we warned that Bachmann – with his extreme history – could also be turned away. It appears that today that is the case.”

The decision to bar Bachmann comes after Canadian far-right activist Lauren Southern was detained in Calais and banned from entering the UK earlier in the week.

Ms Southern, who worked for far-right Canadian site The Rebel Media, was held by Border Force in Coquelles on Monday.

Ms Southern, who supported a seaborne mission seeking to hamper the rescue of refugees, claimed British authorities had told her she was “officially banned from UK for racism” after being detained.

“They just locked me out and said ‘au revoir’ ... Officially banned from UK for ‘racism’ ... Doing fine though, all the cool people are being banned anyway,” the far-right provocateur tweeted.

Writing in a Facebook post last week, Generation Identity, a British white supremacist group, said Austrian far-right activist Martin Sellner and his American girlfriend Britanny Pettibone, who is a YouTuber and author, had been detained by the British Government.

The couple were refused entry at Luton airport on Friday, also on grounds their presence was not conducive to the public good. Mr Sellner and Ms Pettibone were detained and subsequently removed from Britain on Sunday.​</s>This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The founder of the German far-right group Pegida has been denied entry to the UK and deported, officials have confirmed.

Lutz Bachmann, who was once pictured styled as Hitler, is the fourth foreign figure in the extreme right wing to be turned away at the UK border in the space of a fortnight.

The Home Office said it had stopped the chair of the anti-Islam, anti-immigration group at Stansted airport on Saturday and deported him the next day, adding that his presence in the UK was “not conducive to the public good”.

Pegida said Bachmann’s intention had been to appear at Speakers’ Corner, in central London, to take the place of Martin Sellner, a white supremacist who was among the far-right activists prevented from entering Britain since 9 March.



Sellner’s partner, Brittany Pettibone, and Lauren Southern were also turned away because their presence was not deemed conducive to the public good.

Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the English Defence League, whose social media posts were cited repeatedly in the trial of the Finsbury Park terrorist Darren Osborne, gave Sellner’s speech at Speakers’ Corner on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate said the decision to deny entry to Bachmann was unsurprising given his “extreme history” and the deportations of Pettibone, Sellner and Southern.

“Far from being denied a chance to air their views, as they often like to falsely claim, these extremists have abused freedom of speech and social media platforms to spread and push toxic views,” the spokesperson said.

Even those with vile views have the right to be heard | Kenan Malik Read more

Hope Not Hate highlighted Bachmann’s criminal past (he has previously been convicted of drug possession, assault and burglary) and said he had “made his name as a prominent Islamophobe”.

Bachmann briefly stood down as the leader of Pegida in January 2015 after a photo showed him with a Hitler-style moustache. He was reinstated as chair a month later.

Pegida said Bachmann was expected to appear at an event being held by the group in its east German stronghold, Dresden, on Monday.



Referring to his case, a Home Office spokesman said: “Border Force has the power to refuse entry to an individual if it is considered that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.”

The Home Office also confirmed the deportations of Southern, Sellner and Pettibone for the same reason.</s>A large crowd has gathered at Speaker’s Corner, in Hyde Park, London, where Tommy Robinson, a right-wing activist, who was the founder of the political movement English Defence League, has visited to deliver a speech on Freedom of Speech. Robinson has been a vocal citric of Islamist ideology, as well as the EU policy of mass migration. Robinson has been accused of holding extreme views by a portion of the media.</s>Martin Sellner, the Austrian leader of Generation Identity, was banned from entering Britain where he was to deliver a speech against the Islamization of Europe at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, London.

A speech of his was, however, delivered at Speakers’ Corner – by heroic Tommy Robinson yesterday (Sunday March 18, 2018).

Here’s the speech in full, via Breitbart:

I assume you all are lovers of free speech because you have come to Speakers’ Corner.

You might not understand all the fuss happening today around this speech. Honestly, I don’t understand it either.

My name is Martin Sellner. I am an Austrian patriot, and at the moment, I’m sitting in a detention cell in Colnbrook Bypass [immigration removal centre] near Heathrow. My smartphone was taken and my girlfriend Brittany [Pettibone] was separated from me. I currently don’t know where she is. We will be deported on Sunday.

Five minutes ago, they unlocked our cells and my fellow inmates are gathering in the prison wing. They are mostly illegals and eastern European criminals.

What brought me into this situation? What was my crime?

My crime was that I wanted to be here with you, to speak at Speakers’ Corner.

But let’s start with the beginning. I was invited by UKIP to present my movement at an event last Autumn. I represent Generation Identity — a patriotic European youth movement that is raising awareness about mass immigration and Islamization.

Far-left people call us right-wing, people who want to shut free speech down call us “fascist”, and folks who hate their own culture call us “racist”.

In reality, we are just a group of young patriots fed up with the system, the mainstream press and lying politicians. We use peaceful activism to make our voices heard, and contrary to our friends on the radical left, who are probably swarming you right now, we never wear masks.

From Paris to Rome, from Vienna to London, we fight peacefully but without compromise for our freedom, our homelands, and our identity.

This is what I wanted to speak about in Autumn. But the conference was cancelled due to threats from the radical left. The venue would not take the risk. So they rescheduled it for March, this time keeping the venue secret — but again the terror of the left prevailed, and the venue dropped out. But this time I did not want to let them win! It was about principles! (Also, our flights were already booked.)

My last refuge was Speakers’ Corner. I remembered my mother telling me about that special place when I was a child. It seemed almost magical to me. A place where everyone, without exception, could just stand on a box and start to speak to those who wanted to listen. I have always loved this tradition of Speakers’ Corner, which seemed very British to me.

But I came only to see that this tradition — the tradition of freedom of speech in the United Kingdom — is dead.

Your Country is blocking you from challenging ideas from the outside. This is a disgrace to our democracy!

I should be speaking in a neat, warm conference room right now, and you should be sitting in comfortable chairs. Instead, I’m in my cell and you are on the street in a standoff with the enemies of freedom of speech.

And this is very telling! Today there is a war going on for our freedom of speech. This war is being fought on the streets, by you!

Every man and woman showing her face today, standing shoulder to shoulder, is standing up against a new totalitarianism that has been growing for far too long. You can be proud of yourself. You might not even agree with me on every point — you are simply giving a statement that I should have the right to speak my mind freely.

I would love to be among you now. They prevented me from it. They locked up the speaker, but I know that the speech will find a way through the iron bars. It will find a way to you and you are going to hear what your government so desperately wants to protect you from.

Those words which they consider more harmful to you then rape gangs or terrorists who are let into your country again and again.

I’m going to tell you something nobody has told you before. It’s the biggest, most obvious secret of our media our politicians and our powerholders: People of Britain, you are being replaced.

There has always been immigration in your history. People coming in, assimilating. But what’s happening today is different: You are being replaced by massive Muslim immigration.

You see it everywhere: in London, in Manchester, but also already in the little countryside towns. A big replacement is going on.

And let me tell you: your politicians have no plan, no vision and no idea how to deal with the problems that come along. Problems like you have seen in Telford, Rotherham, and on Westminster Bridge.

All across Europe, there is a shadow hanging over our heads. The French are whispering about it in the Metro, the Germans murmuring about it when they feel unwatched, Italians look left and right, and if nobody is listening they tell you: “I don’t feel at home anymore in my street. We are becoming foreigners in our own country.”

And again and again I hear: “We are not allowed to talk about it.”

And that’s the bizarre drama of the “strange death of Europe”. We are being replaced, conquered by radical Islam, and we are not allowed to talk about it!

Dear Britons, defenders of free speech. Out of my cell in Colnbrook, I want to ask you something. Be honest and raise your hands.

Who among you has ever been in the following situation: You grab a beer after work, or you are visiting your girlfriend’s parents for the first time, or you meet other children’s parents at school — and suddenly the conversation moves to politics: radical Islam, immigration.

Who of you in this very moment was faced with the decision between speaking his mind and facing problems, or complying and staying silent?

Raise your hands and be honest.

I will not be able to see the results, but every single hand is too much. This amount of fear should not exist in a society. Speech that has social costs and severe consequences is no longer free. It has a price — and our Government and the Antifa are working everyday to raise that price.

No freedom of speech means no democracy. In front of our very eyes this country is becoming a tyranny, shutting all debates about immigration down, until demographics solves the issue by replacement.

People of the UK. I might be in a cell right now, but you all are in a cell. It’s the prison of fear and silence your government and the PC tyranny has locked you in since the days of your childhood.

I ask you, I command you, break free!

Patriots of the UK: come out of the closet. Make your dissent visible by visible acts of resistance that inspire others. I know for certain that millions in the UK think like me. Those millions should be on the street now.

We need a coming out of the silent majority, or Britain is lost. We need a free, open and honest debate about immigration, Islam and demographics, so we can sort these problems out together.

And I know that the force is still in you. With your Brexit vote you stunned the world! The will and the life of the British nation is not broken.

Initially, I asked if freedom of speech is dead in the UK. You, every one of you who came today, is a living sign that the tradition of the UK is not dead! You are the lively tradition of your nation, saving its face before history.

People of the UK — remember who you are! Remember your glorious past, you are sons and daughters of knights, kings, explorers, philosophers and artists. Who is the sovereign in this country? Who is the sovereign in this country?

It’s you — the people. You, the silent and invisible majority who said NO during Brexit. You can say NO again — no to Islamization, no to mass immigration, and no to the great replacement.

And YES to your identity — yes to your security, yes to your heritage and the future for your children.

And all this is impossible without freedom of speech.

I know, if these words will find their way to the UK and even to Speakers’ Corner, it will be a victory for our cause.

If they did, and if you are hearing them now, I tell you: go further on that winning streak. Don’t be afraid because we have an ally that is unbeatable: Truth.

The battle, our battle for freedom of speech, has just begun, and Speakers’ Corner will become a symbolic place in that struggle.

When you go home know I want you to bring the spirit of Speakers’ Corner with you. Every single person who raised his hand because he could relate to this moment of fear, when he did not dare to speak his mind.

Promise me: Next time I will overcome my inner fear. Next time I will speak up!</s>Supporters of the ex-English Defence League leader Robinson scuffled with counter-protesters during a ‘free speech’ rally held at Hyde Park’s iconic Speakers’ Corner. Scores of police were on hand to attempt to keep the peace.

Before Robinson’s address, Speakers’ Corner veteran HeikoKhoo was harangued and abused by the right-winger’s supporters. One man ripped off Khoo’s hat, while others shouted obscenities and surrounded the left-wing activist.

The supporters had rallied to hear Robinson read out a ‘banned speech’ by Generation Identity’s Martin Sellner, who was denied entry to the UK. Robinson delivered the speech to thousands who braved the cold weather, gathering in the snow at Speakers’ Corner, a landmark of free speech in London. Marx, Lenin, and George Orwell all gave speeches at the iconic Hyde Park location.

A handful of Muslim counter-protesters confronted Robinson and his group, pushing back against police and the protesters. Scuffles broke out and it is understood that police made a handful of arrests.

A live stream posted from Robinson’s YouTube channel showed large crowds of supporters and counter-protesters, while police can be seen around the far-right speaker, who made headlines last week for punching a migrant in the face in Rome. Supporters could be heard chanting “free speech,” making Robinson’s voice impossible to be heard clearly for those viewing at home.

Muslim protesters responded with cries of "Allahu Akbar!" with both groups trying to drown the other out. According to one attendee, Robinson vowed he would be back at Speakers’ Corner next week to challenge the Muslim speakers who are there, among others, on a weekly basis.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!</s>PEGIDA founder Lutz Bachmann has been prevented from entering Britain to deliver a speech at Speakers’ Corner, partly on the grounds that he “knows” identitarian activist Martin Sellner.

Bachmann had planned on delivering a speech written by the Generation Identity leader, who was recently detained along with YouTube political pundit Brittany Pettibone and then ejected from the country, partly on the grounds that GI is “viewed in the UK as a right wing organization” and partly on the grounds that Pettibone intended to “interview Tommy Robinson — a far right leader whose materials and speeches incite racial hatred”, according to seemingly official documents.

Bachmann also shared a picture of a document which he claims is from the officials who stopped him, which asserts that PEGIDA is “involved in the promotion and incitement of racial hatred and division of communities” and notes that “[by] your own admission during interview you have known [Sellner] well for some years” as grounds for denying his Free Movement rights.

“A speech was discovered during a baggage search which you have stated you are intending to deliver to the general public at speakers corner, Hyde Park,” the poorly written document states.

“This speech relates to your organization “Pediga” which is devoted to “combating the threat of Islam”, the activities of this organization have been involved in the promotion and incitement of racial hatred and division of communities. Furthermore this speech appears to have been written and it is believed should have been delivered by Martin Sellner an individual who is a member of an Austrian group which also promotes racial hatred and works against community cohesion and who according to your own admission during interview you have known very well for some years.

“According to Home Office records Mr Martin Sellner was recently refused admission to the UK on the grounds of public policy which he refers to in his speech which you intend to deliver.”

Officials have also recently detained and deported Canadian activist and independent journalist Lauren Southern, who is currently working on a documentary which highlights the apparent persecution of the white minority in South Africa.

Southern was detained under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act — despite what is claimed to be a recording of a conversation between Kent Police and Southern’s father showing an official laughingly admit that they “don’t suspect her of being a terrorist or anything like that.”

Critics have suggested the British authorities have been much more zealous in protecting the borders from right-leaning activists and journalists than they have been against foreign criminals, Islamic hate preachers, and returning jihadist fighters.</s>Another far-right activist has been refused entry to Britain, following the recent banning of internet personalities Martin Sellner, Lauren Southern and Brittany Pettibone.

Lutz Bachmann, the founder of the far-right Patriotic Europeans against Islamisation of the West ("Pediga") movement, was banned ahead of a mass meeting at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, where the activist Tommy Robinson was due to address a large crowd.

Bachmann founded Pediga in 2014 in protest at plans for refugee centres to open in Dresden. The 45-year-old, who has a number of criminal convictions including drug dealing, theft and assault, stepped down as leader in 2015, following an outcry over a Facebook photo which appeared to show him dressed as Hitler – but was later reinstated.

A Home Office source confirmed he was refused leave to enter and admission respectively at Stansted Airport on 17 March, on policy grounds that his presence in the UK was not conducive to the public good.

He was detained and subsequently removed from the UK the next day – the morning of the event.</s>Regular readers will know that I've long been at odds with campaigners whose targets are Muslims in general rather than Islamists, or whose targets are Muslims rather than the absurdity of the Islamic faith. All British citizens conforming to law, who can pass Cameron's test, are entitled to peaceful enjoyment of their lives, homes and streets without threat, harassment or violence, irrespective of their faith.

Robinson now has an extensive entry on Wikipedia that details his past extreme right wing activities, and his damascene moment with Quilliam that apparently changed him from bigoted street thug to campaigner for democracy. I'm not questioning or belittling this - just stating it as a fact. It's the reason that until now he's never been mentioned on this blog - he's been outside my interest.

However, I did watch the events yesterday at Speakers Corner with interest. It was rightly understood as a free speech event. It was very well attended, and tens of thousands more followed it on live feeds or on Twitter. It was peaceful. It was a protest against what seems to be a concerted silencing of right wing voices by both the State and social media - culminating in the refusal of entry to the UK by three European right-wingers. Robinson read a speech by Martin Sellner, one of the excluded activists. It was not a good speech, certainly not worth quoting. Brits are motivated more by 1688 and the Chartists than fantasies of being Aryan knights. It didn't matter; very few heard it, either live or on the feeds. The speech wasn't the point.

I'm still not a fan of Mr Robinson. But free speech is under serious threat, and groups such as Martin Scriblerus are important because they offer individual bloggers who may be suddenly silenced a resilience. What has been happening with increasing frequency on You Tube and Twitter may soon come to Blogger, and even innocent and peace-affirming voices such as mine are under threat, perhaps just for mentioning Tommy Robinson's name. I'm still not a fan of Mr Robinson, but if yesterday was a case of a bad man doing a good thing, then so be it. In defence of free speech our enemy's enemy is our friend.</s>In an act of extreme irony, police removed Tommy Robinson from a place known historically as a place for free speech, due to his “politically incorrect” opinions.</s>Lutz Bachmann said on his Facebook page that he was not allowed to enter the UK because he carried a copy of a speech by far-right Austrian activist Martin Sellner, who himself had been denied entry last week.

Read more: The far-right's push to enter the German judicial system

Both the dpa news agency and daily Bild say the UK's Home Office had confirmed to them that Bachmann had been detained at London's Stansted Airport and then deported back to Germany as his presence in the UK was deemed "not conducive to the public good," without going into more detail.

Bachmann had planned to go to a far-right rally at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, where former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson read out Sellner's speech.

Read more: Germany sees almost 1,000 anti-Muslim crimes in 2017

On Facebook, Bachmann says the fact that he was to attend the event was the sole reason for him being denied entry, as he had recently attended other events in London, Manchester and Birmingham – all in the UK.

Sellner, of the white supremacist Generation Identity group, and his girlfriend Brittany Pettibone, a YouTube commentator, were detained at London's Luton Airport on March 12 and refused entry into the UK.

Bachmann, whose PEGIDA movement organizes regular anti-foreigner and anti-Islam marches through German cities, has been previously been convicted of inciting racial hatred in Germany.

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Lutz Bachmann, the founder of the German nationalist group Pegida, is detained and prevented from speaking at a free speech rally at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London, at which activist Tommy Robinson is also speaking.