Lutz Bachmann has frequently been criticized for not sticking to his own principles.

He’s a convicted criminal. But one of his main messages as leader of Germany’s anti-immigration movement Pegida — the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West — is to deport criminal foreigners as part of a ‘‘zero-tolerance policy.’’ Bachmann’s criminal record includes theft, physical assault, drug dealing, and burglary — something he rarely discussed publicly.

Now, the face of Germany’s anti-immigration movement has become a migrant himself. Saying that he has faced ‘‘persecution’’ in Germany, Bachmann now spends most of his time in Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Bachmann had previously described refugees as ‘‘junk,’’ ‘‘animals,’’ and ‘‘filth’’ on Facebook, and once photographed himself with an Adolf Hitler moustache.

Although he avoided describing himself as a ‘‘migrant,’’ Bachmann explained in a Facebook video that he had lived and worked on the Spanish island for several months. He cited several alleged break-in attempts into his house in the eastern German city of Dresden as one of the reasons why he and his wife left Germany.

Washington Post