Direkte Demokratie für Europa (DDfE; Direct Democracy for Europe) is a campaign group formed by six former organizers of the German anti-Islam Pegida protests, led by the former Pegida treasurer, Kathrin Oertel. DDfE split from Pegida after Pegida's founder, Lutz Bachmann—who had resigned as chairman in late January 2015 after allegations of hate speech and revelations that he had posed as Adolf Hitler for selfies—refused to leave Pegida's 12-person organizing team. Oertel, a freelance business consultant from Coswig, Saxony, near Dresden, was previously the second most prominent spokesperson of Pegida.