A German city has declared a 'Nazi emergency', amid growing "anti-democratic, anti-pluralist, misanthropic and right-wing-extremist attitudes and actions".
Dresden's city council passed the resolution - dubbed 'Nazinotstand' - on Wednesday, local media reported.
"We have a Nazi problem in Dresden and have to do something about it," said Max Aschenbach, a member of satirical party Die Partei but being serious for once.
"Politics must finally begin to ostracise that and say: No, that's unacceptable," he told public radio.
Dresden, bombed heavily during World War II, has been the site of numerous far-right rallies in recent years and is home to anti-Islamist group Pegida. It's also an electoral stronghold for right-wing, anti-immigration political party Alternative for Germany.
The resolution passed 39-29. It was opposed by members of Germany's Christian Democrats, who control the nation's parliament as part of a coalition.
"From our point of view, this was primarily an intended provocation," council chair Jan Donhauser told BBC News.
"'State of emergency' means the collapse or a serious threat to public order. That is not given rudimentarily. Furthermore, the focus on 'right-wing extremism' does not do justice to what we need.
"We are the guardians of the liberal-democratic basic order and no violence, no matter from which extremist side it comes, is compatible with it."
The resolution doesn't actually come with any requirements the city has to do anything different.
Far-right parties and populism has been on the rise in recent years, including Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro in the Americas and the rise of Nigel Farage's anti-European parties like UKIP and the Brexit Party.
Newshub.
