under construction across the Elbe, received international attention because of its position across the Dresden Elbe Valley World Heritage Site. The city held a public referendum in 2005 on whether to build the bridge, prior to UNESCO expressing doubts about the compatibility between bridge and heritage. Its construction caused loss of World Heritage site status in 2009. In 2006, the city of Dresden sold its publicly subsidized housing organization, WOBA Dresden GmbH, to the US-based private investment company Fortress Investment Group. The city received euro and paid off its remaining loans, making it the first large city in Germany to become debt-free. Opponents of the sale were concerned about Dresden's loss of control over the subsidized housing market. Dresden has been the center of groups and activities of far-right movements. Politicians and politics of Alternative for Germany (AfD) have a strong backing. Starting in October 2014, PEGIDA, a nationalistic political movement based in Dresden has been organizing weekly demonstrations against what it perceives as the Islamization of Europe at the height of the European migrant crisis. As the number of demonstrators increased to 15,000 in December 2014, so has the international media coverage of it. However, since 2015, the number of demonstrators has decreased significantly. In 2019, the Dresden City Council passed a policy statement against "anti-democratic, anti-pluralist, misanthropic and right-wing-extremist developments". The motion was originally put forward by the satirical political party Die Partei. Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Die Linke, SPD and Die Partei voted in favour of the statement. The CDU and AfD voted against it. Among other things, the statement calls on strengthening democracy, protecting human rights and raising spending on (political) education. Twin towns – sister cities Dresden and Coventry became twins after the Second World War in an act of reconciliation, as both had suffered near-total destruction from massive aerial bombing. Similar symbolism occurred in 1988, when Dresden twinned with the Dutch city of Rotterdam. The Coventry Blitz and Rotterdam Blitz bombardments by the German Luftwaffe are also considered to be disproportional. Dresden has had a triangular partnership with Saint Petersburg and Hamburg since 1987. Dresden is twinned with: Coventry, England, United Kingdom (1959) Saint Petersburg, Russia (1961) Wrocław, Poland (1963) Skopje, North Macedonia (1967) Ostrava, Czech Republic (1971) Brazzaville, Congo (1975) Florence, Italy (1978) Hamburg, Germany (1987) Rotterdam, Netherlands (1988) Strasbourg, France (1990) Salzburg, Austria (1991) Columbus, United States (1992) Hangzhou, China (2009) Friendly cities