German Parties Converge To Change Law that Makes It a Crime To Insult Politicians by Paul Serran Aug. 17, 2026 1:40 pm118 Comments TruthTweetShareGettrGab

Merz is the most unpopular leader in Germany’s history – but the law makes it a crime to ‘offend’ him

To call German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ‘Pinocchio’ hardly classifies as a crime.

Germany has become a repressive society where the politician overlords are shielded from online insults by an absurd law.

But now, parties from all political stripes have come to a rare consensus: the law criminalizing citizens for offending politicians needs to change.

This comes after outrage broke over investigations of people who mocked failing Chancellor Friedrich Merz and called him names like ‘Lying Fritz’.

Politico reported:

“But while politicians across the spectrum agree the law needs fixing — they just can’t agree how, or when, to change it, according to a POLITICO survey of the lawmakers responsible for the issue from each of the parties represented in the Bundestag.

‘We take seriously the criticism that, in practice, it may have created the impression of a special legal privilege for politicians’, said Susanne Hierl, a lawmaker from Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). ‘Such preferential treatment was never the intention of the legislature’.”

While the Left Party and right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) want to abolish the law, the establishment political forces like the CDU, the Greens, and the Social Democratic Party just want to ‘revise’ it.

“’Politicians like Friedrich Merz insult ordinary people in this country every day by calling them lazy or malingerers’, said Luke Hoss, a Left lawmaker, referring to the chancellor’s remarks that Germans should work more to boost economic growth. ‘The provision creates a special criminal offense that applies only to politicians and should be abolished’.

Tobias Peterka, an AfD lawmaker, said tough criticism comes with the job. ‘Anyone who voluntarily enters politics and exercises public authority must — as Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has repeatedly emphasized — tolerate harsher criticism than private citizens, not less’, he argued.”

The absurd law applies to insults that ‘impede the politicians’ work’.

The ‘criminals’ face up to three years in prison.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/08/german-parties-converge-change-law-that-makes-it/