German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has reportedly filed thousands of criminal complaints against citizens for online insults, raising alarm over the state of free speech in Europe. According to an exposé by Welt am Sonntag, Merz has emerged as one of the most litigious political figures in modern German history, personally pursuing legal action for offenses ranging from being called a “little Nazi” to “filthy drunk.”
The newspaper reports that a law firm commissioned by Merz has tracked and filed legal action in nearly 5,000 cases, sometimes resulting in police raids and property seizures. In one instance, authorities reportedly confiscated the phone of a wheelchair-bound elderly woman over an insult, disrupting her ability to communicate with her doctors. A separate raid over the “filthy drunk” remark was later deemed unlawful.
Though German law criminalizes insults against public officials, critics argue that Merz’s approach borders on authoritarian. Some complaints were launched independently by state-funded groups like “Hesse Against Hate” and the Berlin prosecutor’s office. But others were directly signed by Merz himself, including one just days before he became Chancellor in 2025.
Merz also reportedly partnered with a monitoring group called “So Done:”, which scans social media for “hate speech” and shares fines levied against citizens with the politicians who benefit. The group was founded by former Free Democrat Alex Brockmeier and offers the service free to politicians in exchange for 50% of fine revenues.
The revelations come amid growing international concern over censorship in the European Union. A White House strategy paper released this week criticized EU speech laws, stating the U.S. “will oppose elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe.”
U.S. Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers specifically referenced Germany’s use of censorship laws, pointing to a case where a woman received a harsher sentence for insulting a rapist than the rapist received for his crime. “In a free society, that shouldn’t happen,” she said.
