Pegida: Anti-Islam group to hold first Spanish rally 'possibly in Catalonia'

The Spanish wing of the far-right Pegida group is preparing to hold its first rally.

A spokesman for Platform for Catalonia, which has declared its support for Pegida, said it would be held in the coming weeks.

"In a few weeks they will organise an important rally that will possibly be held in Catalonia," Robert Hernando, the general secretary of the party, told Russian state news outlet Sputnik.

Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, was founded in Dresden, Germany, and has seen surging support, with 25,000 attending a rally held by the group in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

Hernando said there were two separate Pegida groups in the country: Pegida Spain and Pegida Catalonia, and denied it was a neo-Nazi group.

However, the original Pegida has been rocked by a series of resignations in recent weeks, amid claims it could be unravelling.

The movement's leader, Lutz Bachmann, resigned after pictures appeared of him online posing as Hitler, and his replacement, Kathrin Oertel, has stepped down citing media pressure.