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Police raided the home of a 64-year-old man accused of insulting German Deputy Prime Minister Robert Habeck.
The embarrassing revelation comes as Mr Habeck is seeking the nomination for prime minister from his Green Party, prosecutors said on Friday, after the economy minister called him an “idiot” on social media. He announced that he had been charged.
X’s post features a photo of Mr. Habeck on top of a modified logo for the shampoo brand “Schwarzkopf Professional,” with the pun “Schwarzkopf Professional” meaning “professional idiot.” There is.
Prosecutors in the Bavarian town of Bamberg told Germany’s DPA news agency that a lawyer representing Herbeck had filed a criminal complaint, confirming previous media reports.
They said the man also faces a second charge of uploading images to X that reference the Nazi era.
The raid of his apartment on Tuesday was carried out in conjunction with a national day of action against online anti-Semitic hate crimes. Investigation is ongoing.
The article caught the attention of politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and alternative news outlets, but did not include details about the Nazi allegations.
Habeck has been vocal about the need for politicians to confront online hate and threats. His economy ministry told German newspaper Die Welt in July that he had filed more than 700 criminal charges related to hate crimes with the help of a nonprofit group called Hate Aid. It also included violent language and death threats.
In his video pitch for the Green Party’s nomination for prime minister last week, filmed from his kitchen table, Habeck said the “germs of populism” are rampant, and that authoritarian regimes and populists with troll armies and robots are running rampant. He warned that he was being baited. At home in Germany.
Still, the charges have drawn comparisons with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has launched criminal investigations against tens of thousands of citizens for insulting him.
Germany’s criminal law includes provisions not only for libel and slander, but also for contempt, which is punishable by up to one year in prison.
Stefan Haster, dean of the Ruhr University Bochum School of Public Law, defended Habeck’s case and called for insults against public figures on social media to be automatically prosecuted. “Whoever took the trouble to report this deserves praise and recognition,” he wrote on social media.
Officials close to Mr. Habeck said the prosecutor in charge of the investigation had full discretion to decide how to proceed, adding that the man faces charges “much more serious” than insulting a minister. He pointed out that he was facing.
The official added that Habeck and his aides “would be surprised” if the raids were triggered solely by the minister’s complaint, “but that is all within the prosecutor’s authority.” he added.
Green Party members begin three days of meetings on Friday in the western German city of Wiesbaden in preparation for snap elections scheduled for February after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government last week. It was planned.
Habeck has posted a series of stylized videos to the public over the past week and is widely expected to be approved as his party’s candidate for prime minister, although he is unlikely to become prime minister.
The Green Party was buoyed by the end of its unhappy marriage with the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), but was thrown into turmoil after a series of dismal performances in local elections prompted the resignations of co-chairs of both parties. facing.
According to opinion polls, the Green Party, which came in third place with nearly 15% of the vote in the last federal election in 2021, is now in fourth place with about 11% of the vote.
