Germany could scrap law banning insults against politicians
Key takeaways
- Germany's special law prohibiting the insulting of politicians has led to cases that many people consider absurd.
- That was up from 3,690 such incidents in 2024 and 2,790 in 2023.
- Several politicians, mainly from the ruling center-right Christian Democratic Union and the opposition Greens, have suggested scrapping the law.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Germany's special law prohibiting the insulting of politicians has led to cases that many people consider absurd. Some members of the government want to abolish the law; others think there's a good reason to retain it.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Fj7f Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been accused to lying by his critics Image: Moritz Schlenk/IMAGOAdvertisement Germany is considering scrapping a special law that prohibits insulting politicians following a series of high-profile cases in which private citizens found themselves under investigation by the police for publicly calling politicians "Schwachkopf" (idiot), "Lügenfritz" (lying Fritz) or "Pinocchio" on social media.
Section 188 of Germany's Criminal Code states that anyone found guilty of defamation "against a person involved in the popular political life" can theoretically be imprisoned for up to three years if the offense makes the politician's public activities "substantially more difficult." In practice, however, most prosecutions have ended with fines.