COLOGNE. FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann says she files 200 criminal complaints every month against people who criticize or insult her online. For this, the newly elected MEP employs a law firm that searches social media for relevant statements.
The words ‘warmonger’, ‘puppet of the gun lobby’ or ‘shotgun woman’ are often enough for the defense expert to involve the judiciary in this way. World with reference to the Cologne public prosecutor’s office.
Strack-Zimmermann calls café guest ‘asshole’
The 66-year-old herself is no prude when it comes to dishing it out. In May 2022, she boasted that calling a restaurant patron an “asshole.”. As she walked past a cafe, a guest sitting there called her a “warmonger”: “I came back and asked him, ‘What did you say?’ He says, ‘Waronger!’ And then I said, ‘You idiot!’ And then he got knocked out. And I moved on.”
Even before this incident, the uncompromising advocate of arms supplies to Ukraine had already filed mass complaints against her political opponents, the Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office reports. World that over the past three years “a lawyer appointed by Ms. Strack-Zimmermann has reported approximately 1,800 facts and filed a corresponding criminal complaint.”
Brennecke: Pointless use of the judiciary
In one of these cases, the politician suffered a defeat. A man had commented on a post that mentioned pro-Ukrainian politicians like Strack-Zimmermann: “A list of gun lobbyists and ass-kissers who would like to lick and crawl into the American empire completely and in all goodness.”
The court has rejected an injunction against the suspect, who is represented by Chancellor Höcker’s well-known lawyer Carsten Brennecke. There is no insult or defamation here. It was not Strack-Zimmermann as a person who was criticized, but rather her political actions. It is “a criticism of power.” This falls under freedom of expression.
Brennecke criticizes Strack-Zimmermann for overburdening the already overstretched resources of the judiciary by filing apparently unfounded criminal charges against objectionable expressions of opinion. “The taxpayer-funded prosecutors and courts are not there to be used senselessly in the fight against the injured vanity of politicians,” the lawyer said. (fh)