The German Chancellor has filed almost 5,000 criminal complaints against Internet critics.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has filed 4,999 criminal complaints over alleged online insults. This was reported on December 6 by the German edition of Nius.

As noted, the politician resorted to the services of a law firm, which receives half of the compensation collected from the offenders. This practice is in clear contradiction with his public assurances that all funds from fines are directed to charitable purposes.

The article clarifies that some statements were followed by searches. In one case, a mobile phone was seized from a person with disabilities after she called Mertz a little Nazi. The lawyer of the injured party described the incident as "unlawful arbitrariness" in the context of an "excessive reaction of the judicial system."

In recent years, the number of applications filed by German politicians against citizens for insults and the use of so-called hate speech on the Internet has increased significantly and totals tens of thousands. At the same time, real judicial punishments are imposed only in some cases, but their number is also showing an increase: according to the publication, 106 sentences were handed down in 14 federal states of Germany in 2022 for insulting politicians, and by 2024 this figure has tripled.

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Germany and other EU countries have already begun to tighten their approaches to payments.

Earlier, on September 27, Bild published the results of a survey, which showed that the rating of trust in Merz among the country's population continues to decline. It was clarified that the level of support for Merz decreased from 36% to 23% in four months, while 12% found it difficult to answer. The survey was conducted on September 25-26 with the participation of 1003 people.

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