It wasn't for criticising the minister, it was for insulting him. You're allowed to say "Robert Habeck is incredibly wrong on these particular points, has been consistently wrong for his entire career, and he is poorly suited to being the minister for economics." You're not allowed to say "Robert Habeck is a moron." It's like the Hacker News comment guidelines, but for real life!

One major plot hole: Despite the law ostensibly applying equally to everyone, there is zero chance that Robert Habeck would ever get in trouble for saying "Martijn Vos is a moron." That's because he's an Important Person and you're not.

Germany *is* completely totalitarian on speech right now, but only on the issue of Israel/Palestine.

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CLPadvocate 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Robert Habeck would not get in trouble, because it's extremely improbable that he would ever use inappropriate language. But in general, every politician insulting any other person could face legal action. It happened before and it would happen again. But, of course, the offended person needs to take action and fill a complaint.

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SnuffBox a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> It's like the Hacker News comment guidelines, but for real life!

The difference is that Hacker News is a website and you can visit another to say rude things if you want with ease, not a country with subjects/citizens.

	▲	immibis a day ago \| parent [-]
		You can also visit another country to say rude things. I can see why this rule is controversial, but I don't think it's a major problem because it doesn't infringe on the right to have and share actual knowledge. Only emotional outbursts are forbidden (by this rule).