By Philipp Fess
Saxony’s Justice Minister Constanze Geiert is calling for an end to insulting politicians. She argues that protecting Chancellor Merz is hardly justifiable to the public.
The law against “insulting a monarch” is once again under scrutiny. Telepolis had already reported on the visit of UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Irene Khan in February, during which the controversial Section 188 of the German Criminal Code (StGB) was apparently a central topic. This followed the failure of a bill by the AfD (Alternative for Germany) party in the Bundestag (German Parliament) that would have abolished the legally enshrined special status for politicians in cases of insult offenses.
A recent article in the US magazine Foreign Affairs, published by the influential think tank Council on Foreign Relations, echoed this sentiment. The author of the piece, titled “The End of the Open Internet,” is Jacob Mchangama, founder and executive director of the organization Future of Free Speech and a research professor at Vanderbilt University.
Mchangama explicitly places the “Lügenfritz” case in the context of a shrinking free internet: Investigations against Germans for insulting politicians have increased from 2598 in 2023 to 4792 in 2025 – a rise of around 85 percent.
The author identifies an “alarming drift” in Europe to the detriment of free speech. The US, however, offers no reliable counterweight, as the commitment to internet freedom under Trump is “inconsistent at best.”
Mchangama writes that the proposed bans bear a striking resemblance to the policies of illiberal regimes that control the internet to secure power and stifle dissent. His warning: Once established, censorship infrastructure is difficult to dismantle and will be passed down to every future government – including the right-wing populist parties that are gaining ground in polls across Europe.
Jacob Mchangama is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech. He is also a research professor at Vanderbilt University and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).