Germany could scrap law banning insults against politicians

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.

The law was toughened in 2021, partly in response to the murder of the conservative Christian Democrat Walter Lübcke in 2019, to allow state prosecutors to pursue such offenses even if the politician in question does not press charges.

Insults and attacks on politicians have been on the rise in Germany in recent years: According to statistics reported by public broadcaster ARD in May, police recorded 5,140 crimes targeting political representatives and party members in 2025. That was up from 3,690 such incidents in 2024 and 2,790 in 2023.

Freedom of speech? Or defamation?

A number of cases have brought accusations of state overreach: In 2024, the home of a 64-year-old pensioner was searched after he described the Green Robert Habeck, the economy minister and vice chancellor at the time, as a "Schwachkopf" (idiot) on social media. Though state prosecutors used Section 188 to justify the search, the man had also used far-right symbols that were banned on the grounds of being unconstitutional.Habeck pressed charges against the man, which only stoked his opponents' ire.

Several politicians, mainly from the ruling center-right Christian Democratic Union and the opposition Greens, have suggested scrapping the law. "The idea was to better protect municipal politicians and institutions," CDU parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn told the Süddeutsche Zeitung in January this year. "But what has emerged is the impression: The powerful have created a special law for themselves."

Erik Marquardt, a member of the European Parliament from the Greens, said he had received his fair share of online abuse, and acknowledges that politicians have become a public punchbag for all kinds of grievances.

Still, he said, that doesn't mean politicians need a special law to protect them. "I don't know if we really need people's houses to be searched because of some stupid post," Marquardt told DW. "If you get insulted as a politician then you can decide for yourself whether someone should be brought to justice. It doesn't really matter if a politician is insulted or someone else."

No clear definition of 'insult' or 'defamation'

The public debate has been marked with some seemingly absurd cases: Earlier this year, a Facebook user was fined €2,000 ($2,300) for calling Chancellor Friedrich Merz "Lügenfritz" in a comment beneath a post. Many conservative voters have accused the chancellor of lying because of what they see as his broken campaign promises.

Even US government officials weighed in on the case. Sarah Rogers, the US undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, took to X to accuse to Germany of "censorship."

Some critics say the law has been selectively applied. In one case, state prosecutors decided against prosecuting someone who described Merz as "Pinocchio," in reference to a fairy-tale character whose nose grows longer when he tells a lie, on the grounds that this was covered by Germany's constitutionally enshrined freedom of speech.

"Insult" and "defamation" are not clearly defined in the relevant sections of the German law. In the "lying Fritz" case, state prosecutors said the nickname potentially undermined the chancellor's integrity by stirring up aggression in the population.

Upholders of democracy

Some members of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partners in Merz's coalition, see value in Section 188. "It's meant for systematic hate campaigns against politicians," Carmen Wegge, the SPD's justice policy spokesperson in the Bundestag, told DW. "That affects not just the chancellor but also the 200,000 unpaid politicians who work in local municipalities, and we're experiencing an enormous increase in abuse directed at local politicians."

"Politicians, especially honorary ones, carry democracy in this country, and that's why we need to afford them special protection," she said.

Political parties, Wegge said, have found it increasingly difficult to field candidates for local elections. She said she feared that online abuse could be used deliberately to stop people from entering politics. "We think people who pursue that goal should face special punishment," she argued.

A majority of Germans seem to agree with Wegge. A Forsa Institute poll published in early June found that 58% of Germans wanted to keep Section 188, while 38% wanted it scrapped.

Bundestag to decide

Isaak Schumann, a lawyer who has addressed the issue of defamation before, doesn't think that there is a real need for the law. "Even if we simply scrapped the section, the behavior described in it would still be prosecutable," he told DW. "Sections 185, 186, 187 already prohibit defamation. The only point would be that politicians would be treated like anyone else."

"I'm sure Section 188 was implemented with good intentions," Schumann said. "But, in my experience, it's not the local politicians that apply this paragraph." Instead, he said he found that the law was mainly being used on behalf of top politicians who get insulted on social media.

Moreover, Schumann said Section 188 could be a danger to democratic freedoms. "We can see that the law enforcement authorities have become very sensitive when it comes to certain expressions, so that people are being investigated when they call Merz 'Pinocchio.' Those aren't examples where local politicians are being threatened by far-right extremists," he said.

Wegge said the SPD would be open to changing Section 188, specifically by altering politician defamation to make it an offense that requires a complaint from the person insulted. At a meeting last week, Germany's 17 federal and state justice ministers debated Section 188, with some calling for its complete abolition. In the end, the ministers decided on a compromise: Section 188 should only apply to insults against local-level politicians. In the end, it will be up to Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, to decide.

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg