The police in Heilbronn in Southwestern Germany have launched an investigation against a pensioner who referred to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as “Pinocchio” in a Facebook comment.
As reported by local newspaper Heilbronner Stimme, the man saw a post on the Facebook page of the local police in October 2025, informing viewers that Merz as well as Winfried Kretschmann, State prime minister of Baden-Wurttemberg, would attend an event in Heilbronn.
The man commented on the post: “Pinocchio is coming to HN [Heilbronn]”, followed by a long-nosed emoji.
In late January he received a letter from the criminal police. It informed him that the agency had started investigations against him under Art. 188 of the German Criminal Code.
This notorious clause – introduced only in April 2021 – criminalises insults and defamations of politicians “if the offence is likely to make their public work considerably more difficult”. Violations may be punished with up to five years in prison.
The clause became widely known after a pensioner who had shared a meme likening former Greens Party vice chancellor Robert Habeck to a moron had his house raided by police over a supposed insult pursuant to Art. 188.
A spokesperson for the Heilbronn police told Brussels Signal: “We can confirm the case. We have submitted the comment to the responsible public prosecutor’s office in Heilbronn for review. The public prosecutor’s office is in charge of the case, which is why we cannot provide any further information.”
According to Heilbronner Stimme the police office’s social media team had come across the comment during a routine scanning of the agency’s social media channels, and had initiated the proceedings: “When we come across cases of criminal activity during our monitoring of social media we will file a suit or submit it to the public prosecutor’s office for review.”
In his reply to the police, the pensioner wrote that his comment was “an ambiguous, symbolic, and satirical expression of opinion in a political context” – and should be covered by the constitutional freedom of opinion.
German law experts agree that the term Pinocchio does not constitute an insult.
Indeed, the wooden puppet whose nose grows when he lies often pops up in German political debates.
Even Merz himself has been called a Pinocchio before. In March 2025, Stephan Brandner, an MP for the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD) called the Conservative politician “Pinocchio-Fritze” after Merz decided to lift the German debt ceiling which he had previously vowed to defend.
And in July 2025, Greens Party leader Franziska Brantner accused Merz of turning into a “Pinocchio chancellor” for failing to lift electricity taxes for households as previously demanded.
