Saxony's Minister of Justice Constanze Geiert (CDU) is planning an initiative to abolish the criminal offense of insulting politicians. The justice ministers of the federal states and Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) are to discuss the abolition of the relevant paragraph at their conference in Hamburg next week and, in the best-case scenario, decide on it, the Ministry of Justice told the German Press Agency.
"I do not believe that special criminal law protection for politicians is necessary," said Geiert, explaining the proposal in Stern magazine. The relevant section 188 has not yet effectively prevented attacks on public officials and elected representatives. Instead, it fuels concerns that polemical debate in political discourse is no longer possible without further ado, the ministry added. The protection of political office holders is also possible without the paragraph, it argues.
