A Bavarian man’s home was raided for retweeting an image calling Economy Minister Robert Habeck an “idiot”.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck has pressed charges against a 64-year-old man from Bavaria for sharing a meme calling him an idiot.
Sometime in June, Stefan Niehoff shared a meme featuring a photo of Habeck with an altered logo of a popular shampoo brand, changing it from Schwarzkopf (black head) to Schwachkopf (weak head). Police raided his home in Lower Franconia at dawn on Tuesday and seized his tablet.
Habeck’s lawyers have filed a criminal complaint against Niehoff, prosecutors in the town of Bamberg told the German news agency dpa on Friday. They added that Niehoff also faced charges of uploading an image to X that “referenced the Nazi era.”
The court warrant had authorized a search and seizure of all of Niehoff’s mobile phones, internet-enabled devices and digital storage media, according to documents obtained by the outlet Nius.
“I am 64 years old. I never imagined that it would come to this. This definitely has a GDR flavor,” Niehoff told Nius, referring to the former East Germany.
He said that officers of the Schweinfurt Criminal Investigation Department showed up at his house shortly after 6am, dragged him from bed for questioning and confiscated his tablet, traumatizing his daughter – who has Down syndrome – in the process.
Prosecutors in Bamberg have recorded Niehoff’s alleged offense as a “politically motivated right-wing crime.” Charges against the man claim he “published an image” of the minister “in order to generally defame Robert Habeck and to make it more difficult for him to carry out his work as a member of the federal government.”
The raid of Niehoff’s home was part of a countrywide “day of action against hate postings,” in which the German police searched 50 homes and carried out 90 investigations, according to Nius.
“When police are at the door, every perpetrator realizes that hate crimes have consequences,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser posted on X, bragging about the raids.
The opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party responded by reposting the meme on X and accusing Habeck of being a tyrant in disguise.
Während sich #Habeck als “volksnaher” Kanzlerkandidat präsentiert, werden seine Kritiker unerbittlich verfolgt. Dabei schreckt man nicht davor zurück, Hausdurchsuchungen bei schlafenden Familien durchzuführen, nur weil der Familienvater diese #Schwachkopf-Grafik teilte. Das ist… pic.twitter.com/mHdd3HBLLu
— AfD (@AfD) November 13, 2024
“This is what would happen to Germany under a Chancellor Habeck: the complete restriction of freedom of expression by a children’s book author who displayed maximum incompetence for three and a half years, but still feels called to greater things,” wrote the AfD.
Another German posted a mash-up of the Green’s campaign message (“Only Democracy Creates Freedom”) and a photo of police breaking down a door.
Erste Wahlkampfplakate geleakt#Schwachkopf pic.twitter.com/JP4dTvnnzV
— Heinz van Eugen ♠️ (@heinzvaneugen) November 13, 2024
Habeck’s Greens are part of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s collapsing “traffic light coalition,” having received 15% of the vote in the last election. Their other most notable cabinet official is Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Last week, in a video floating his candidacy for chancellor in the upcoming election, Habeck denounced the “fungus of populism” that he claimed was around Germany fueled by “authoritarian regimes with troll armies and bots.”
That’s twisted. It seems like that officials are behaving like Nazis.
Ghey Nazi’s
Stasi.
The strange dystopian Orwellian landscape that we have now transcended into
Same crap going on in what was once Great Britain
Although anybody who had a brain got out
Where ‘tweeters’ are given hefty jail sentences and those convicted of serious crimes like pedophilia and violence are released early to make room for the new found criminal class
But anyway Germany is going to crash and burn
The new generation ( krauts ) politicians have no sense of humour !
It is a very old tradition to make fun of politicians, draw caricatures and write pamphlets about them.
I thought than in a ” democratie” the crime of ” lèse majesté” was abolished.
But it seems not , as they can’t bare any criticisism and surely no fun at their expenses. Poor souls…
What a boring generation
Look no further than neighbour France, to see how democratic, the so called EU really is. Man arrested there, for much the same thing.
We all saw how ” democratic” the EU was with covid. And there are many french that fled france to avoid political emprisonment.
One of the no-no crime is called ” revisionism” when challenging the holohoax through archive research
The current coalition are on their last legs and looking at this, not to mention the attempt to ban the opposition AFD, its not hard to see why. I would imagine many voters there, are appalled.
Instill fear
yes, instill fear, but if no public expression is possible, it will go underground. Always does
Remember your history Germany !!!!!!!!!
Do not make the same mistake again !!!!!!!
The US has a new leader. A leader who does not subscribe to this nonsense.