More than 40% of respondents believe politicians should not enjoy special protection against defamation, a recent survey has suggested
Many Germans want their politicians to be stripped of the special protection against defamation and insults they enjoy under current laws, a recent survey conducted by the INSA polling agency has shown. The issue has come into the spotlight following dozens of criminal cases opened against people calling Chancellor Friedrich Merz names online, with some of them facing thousands of euros in fines as a result.
A person can face up to a year behind bars or a fine for insulting someone under the German Criminal Code. In case of politicians, though, the punishment is tripled if the insult is related to their public position and is “likely to significantly impede their public activities” as stipulated in a separate article.
According to INSA, 43% of Germans would like to see this article, known as Paragraph 188, scrapped. Only 32% wanted to leave it as is, with the rest not giving a specific answer.
The support for the move is particularly strong among the backers of opposition parties, with 67% of Free Democrats’ supporters and 64% of Alternative for Germany (AfD) voters wanting it gone. Supporters of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union were the only ones overwhelmingly supportive of keeping the controversial article in place, with 55% of them opposing any changes, the poll suggested.
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