Legal to call Friedrich Merz “Pinocchio”, German police say

German police have clarified that it is legal to refer to Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) as “Pinocchio” implying that he has told lies.

Pensioner can legally call Merz “Pinocchio”

German police clarified this week that calling Friedrich Merz “Pinocchio” is legal and covered by Germany’s freedom of expression law.

The statement was prompted by a case in Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg. On February 23, Heilbronn police announced they were investigating around 400 social media comments under a post announcing a flight ban due to Merz's 2025 visit to the southwestern city.

A police spokesperson said some of the comments were “offensive in nature”, for example, calling Merz “Pinocchio”, a reference to the fictional character with a wooden nose which grows when he tells a lie.

The statement led to public discussion about whether the police investigation was warranted or threatened to undermine free speech legislation. This prompted Heilbronn police to clarify that referring to Merz as “Pinocchio” is indeed legal.

The police said they would drop investigations into the Pinocchio comment, which was left by a pensioner, but are continuing to investigate 38 other online comments left on their post about Merz’s visit.

Germany’s law against insulting politicians

When police initially contacted the pensioner, they explained he was being investigated under paragraph 188 of Germany’s criminal code. The law doesn’t just protect politicians, public figures or members of the public from defamation or slander, but also from insults.

The law is also invoked surprisingly regularly. At the end of 2025, it became public that Friedrich Merz alone had lodged over 100 such complaints since 2021. 

One of the best-known cases of paragraph 188 being invoked included a 64-year-old man who had his house searched by police after calling then-Finance Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) a “Schwachkopf” (moron). The so-called “Schwachkopf-Affäre” was the subject of a 2025 documentary of the same name.