SIDEBAR Hitler, Mussolini figures set up in Koblenz to protest European right

Koblenz (dpa) - Protestors set up metre-high cardboard figures of notorious European fascist leaders to mark their disgust at a meeting of right-wing populist parties in the western German city of Koblenz on Saturday.The images included pictures of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, the German and Italian dictators responsible for wreaking havoc across Europe in World War II, and were set up where the River Moselle flows into the Rhine.The figures were then loaded onto a barge that travelled past the Congress Hall, where some 1,000 supporters of the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF), a cross-party group of nationalist, anti-immigrant lawmakers in the European Parliament, was taking place.Meanwhile, around 40 protestors staged a sit-down protest, blocking access roads to the hall, police in the city reported. The gathering was nevertheless going ahead as planned.By midday, police had counted around 3,000 counter-protesters in total."It is time that no one stays home any more," Malu Dreyer, prime minister of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, told protesters gathered outside.He urged people to stand up for a peaceful and open Europe and to speak out against right-wing populist rhetoric in their day-to-day lives.