A record 15,000 protesters marched in the city of Dresden against Germany's immigration policy, with banners expressing fears over the influx of immigrant Muslims.

The Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) has found allies in far-right political groups and some ordinary citizens who find the growing number of immigrants from the Middle East unsettling.

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The leader of the movement, Lutz Bachmann, 41, told protesters while on stage that Germany's leaders have lost touch with common citizens so they do not understand the protests.

Even though people born abroad are not that many in Dresden compared to other cities in Germany, Bachmann's protest resounded with locals. From a few hundred to 10,000 a week ago, anti-immigration rally participants have reached 15,000.

The protests quickly spread across the country since they began with a social media message in Dresden two months ago. They are now starting to get on the nerves of German government, which has been trying to drum up Germany as a nation of tolerance and openness after the Nazi regime.

Weeks before fresh protests erupted, media reports have zeroed in on Bachmann's criminal record which includes drunk driving, burglary and drug dealing.

On Monday, he turned the tables on the media, accusing them of spreading lies about the movement, gaining support from agitated protesters, most of them white over 40 years old with shabby clothing.

PEGIDA began in October to oppose plans to add 14 centers for about 2,000 refugees in Dresden. More than 200,000 asylum-seekers settled in Germany this year alone, the most among western countries, partly due to a surge in the number of Syrian immigrants.

German justice minister Heiko Maas, a top leader among Social Democrats, has called the anti-immigration movement a national disgrace.

Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized that Germany needs immigrants to fix a possible demographic crisis due to dwindling births in the country, one of the lowest in Europe. 

TagsPEGIDA, protests, Germany, immigration, immigrant Muslims, Islamization