The Dresden public prosecutor announced on Tuesday, June 10th, that it is investigating former finance minister and vice chancellor Robert Habeck for defamation under Section 188 of the German Criminal Code. Ironically, it is the same law under which Habeck has had his lawyers file—at last count—805 police reports against private citizens for insulting him. A charge under Section 188 can result in a five-year prison sentence.
While Deutschland Kurier editor-in-chief David Bendels was given a seven-month suspended sentence for a meme, and one pensioner got to serve time when he couldn’t pay the fine imposed for posting the phrase ‘Alles für Deutschland’ (‘Everything for Germany’) on X, Habeck is unlikely to see the inside of a prison cell, since he currently enjoys immunity as a member of parliament.
When he called for tighter regulations of social media last year, Habeck said that “freedom of expression” must abide by “the rules of decency and democracy.” But while the alleged speech crimes against Habeck’s person largely consist of pejorative memes and images, the accusations now levied against him are more serious.
In August of 2024, in Dresden, speaking about the left-populist Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) party, Habeck stated:
to be paid .. for one’s opinion, to buy votes on the Internet, to build up troll armies, to have one’s opinion bought: That is disgusting, and that is not appropriate, and we know that the AfD and BSW are paid in the same way.
In his statement, Habeck alleged that the BSW had received funding from Russia. Because he implicated not only the party but also its leader, Sahra Wagenknecht, personally, she is also considered to be harmed.
In September, Habeck signed a cease-and-desist declaration demanded by BSW, stating he would not make allegations of Russian funding against the party again. However, the BSW and Wagenknecht filed a complaint against Habeck later that fall.
The prosecutor’s office requested to lift Habeck’s immunity on March 11th, and opened an investigation on March 21st of this year. In Section 188 defamation cases, prosecutors can investigate without lifting a politician’s immunity if it is deemed to be in the public interest—as in Habeck’s case.
Meanwhile, in the latest court case involving one of the plebes who dared criticize his Green Party overlord, the judge determined that it was indeed allowable to call Habeck “a complete idiot” because the statement constituted “pointed criticism in the context of Habeck’s economic policy” and did not qualify as defamation.
