The German prosecutor's office allowed a local resident to call Merz Pinocchio.

The prosecutor's office of the German city of Heilbronn has stopped investigating the case of a local pensioner who called German Chancellor Friedrich Merz Pinocchio in a comment on social media. This was stated on February 24 in a joint statement by the prosecutor's office and the police of the settlement, the newspaper Heilbronner Stimme writes.

The agency recalled that the case against the man was initiated after his publication on the social network Facebook (owned by Meta, whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) with the headline "Pinocchio comes to Heilbronn," which was widely discussed by local media journalists.

"The Heilbronn Prosecutor's Office has terminated the relevant case, as it concerns criticism of the government, which falls under the protection of freedom of opinion and, therefore, is permissible," the press release says.

The prosecutor's office added that a similar case had already been dismissed. In particular, co-chair of the Green Party Franziska Brantner and Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Stefan Brandner compared Merz to Pinocchio.

Chancellor M. and his women: Merz was at the center of a huge scandal

The German leader made a number of inaccurate remarks about the migration policy of his predecessors.

The German criminal police launched an investigation into a pensioner from Heilbronn in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg the day before. Last October, a pensioner left a comment about Merz's arrival in the city, calling him Pinocchio, and accompanying the post on the social network with a smiley face with a long nose. A few months later, the man was notified of the start of an investigation on suspicion of insulting a political figure in accordance with paragraph 188 of the German Criminal Code.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.