Police searched the home of a 64-year-old man after he was accused of insulting German vice-chancellor Robert Habeck.
In an awkward revelation that comes as Habeck seeks the nomination of his Green party as candidate for chancellor, prosecutors on Friday said the economy minister had filed a criminal complaint after the man called him an “idiot” on social media in June.
The post on X featured a photograph of Habeck over a doctored version of the logo for the shampoo brand Schwarzkopf Professional, with the pun “Schwachkopf Professional” — meaning “professional idiot”.
Lawyers acting for Habeck filed a criminal complaint, prosecutors in the Bavarian town of Bamberg told Germany’s DPA news service, confirming earlier media reports.
They said the man also faced a second accusation of uploading an image to X that referenced the Nazi era.
The search of his apartment, which took place on Tuesday, was carried out in connection with a nationwide day of action against online antisemitic hate crime. The investigation is ongoing.
The story was seized upon by politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and alternative news outlets — which did not include the detail about the Nazi allegation.
Habeck has been vocal about the need for politicians to stand up to online hatred and threats. His economy ministry told the German newspaper Die Welt in July that, supported by a non-profit organisation called Hate Aid, he had filed more than 700 criminal complaints relating to hate crime. They included violent language and death threats.
In a video pitch for the Green party nomination as candidate for chancellor last week, filmed from his kitchen table, Habeck warned that the “fungus of populism” was spreading and was being fed by authoritarian regimes with troll armies and bots — as well as populists at home in Germany.
Still, the latest complaint drew comparisons with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has launched criminal investigations into tens of thousands of citizens for insulting him.
Germany’s criminal code includes provisions not only for slander and defamation but also for insult, which is punishable by up to a year in prison.
Stefan Huster, chair of public law at Ruhr University Bochum, defended Habeck’s lawsuit and called for insults against public figures on social media to be automatically prosecuted. “Anyone who takes the trouble to report this deserves praise and recognition,” he wrote on social media.
An official close to Habeck said the prosecutor in charge of the investigation had full discretion in deciding how to proceed, pointing out that the man was facing “much more serious” allegations than having insulted the minister.
Habeck and his close circle would be “astonished” if the house search had been solely prompted by the minister’s complaint, the official added, “but all of that is within the power of the prosecutor’s office”.
Green party members on Friday were set to start a three-day conference in the western German city of Wiesbaden, as they gear up for snap elections expected to take place in February after last week’s collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-way coalition.
Habeck, who has posted a series of stylised videos addressing the public over the past week, is widely expected to be approved as the party’s candidate for chancellor even if the prospect of him ever taking up the role is slim.
The Greens have faced turmoil after a series of dismal performances in regional elections prompted the resignation of the two party co-chairs, although the mood has been buoyed by the end of their unhappy marriage with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).
Polling suggests that the Green party, which came third with close to 15 per cent of the vote in the last federal elections in 2021, is currently in fourth place with about 11 per cent.
