Neo-nazis no-show their annual march in Dresden. Is Pegida to blame?

(The Christian Science Monitor) Every year on February 13, locals link arms to form a human chain across the Elbe River and Dresden’s old town. The gesture is part symbol of remembrance of the World War II bombings that left the city in ruins and part act of defiance against a coinciding neo-Nazi march.  

This year there was still a chain—but no visible neo-Nazis, in their first no-show in the nearly 10-year-long marching tradition.

Instead, a mishmash of picketers protesting the extremists’ possible presence spread across in front of Dresden’s famous Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), as prominent politicians spoke in solemn commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the British and American bombings.