German law targets pensioner for satirical post about chancellor

Police in Heilbronn, southwestern Germany, have opened an investigation against a pensioner who referred to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as “Pinocchio” in a Facebook comment.

In October 2025, the man saw a post on the Heilbronn police’s Facebook page announcing that Merz, along with Baden-Württemberg’s state prime minister Winfried Kretschmann, would attend an upcoming event in the city. He commented: “Pinocchio is coming to HN [Heilbronn],” adding a long-nosed emoji, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Three months later, in late January, he received a letter from the criminal police stating that investigations had been launched under Article 188 of the German Criminal Code. Introduced in April 2021, the law criminalizes insults or defamations of politicians “if the offence is likely to make their public work considerably more difficult,” with penalties of up to five years in prison.

A Heilbronn police spokesperson said that the comment was discovered during routine monitoring of social media: “When we come across cases of criminal activity during our monitoring of social media we will file a suit or submit it to the public prosecutor’s office for review.”

The pensioner responded, arguing that his comment was “an ambiguous, symbolic, and satirical expression of opinion in a political context” and should be protected under Germany’s constitutional freedom of opinion. Legal experts noted that referring to someone as “Pinocchio” is widely understood as a symbolic, political metaphor and does not constitute an insult.

Indeed, Merz himself has been called “Pinocchio” by politicians in the past. In March 2025, AfD MP Stephan Brandner labeled him “Pinocchio-Fritze” after Merz lifted the German debt ceiling, and in July 2025, Green Party leader Franziska Brantner called him a “Pinocchio chancellor” for failing to reduce electricity taxes as promised.

By Vafa Guliyeva