3 ms·
She's rolling the dice a bit, but it was her best shot. If she very strongly was in support of his prosecution, she'd be seen as very anti-free speech. If she
by mabbo 11y ago
She's rolling the dice a bit, but it was her best shot.
If she very strongly was in support of his prosecution, she'd be seen as very anti-free speech. If she blocked it entirely, Erdogan would be pissed off and probably stop blocking refugees for her.
Her goal here is that the courts decide to throw out the law entirely when it goes to trial (is that a thing in Germany? Can courts do that there?) or they give a tiny slap on the wrist. Then she can say to Erdogan "Well, we tried to stop him".
Worst case scenario here is that the comedian actually goes to jail. That would probably end Merkel's career.
- spriggan3 11y agoNo, it's just shows that Merkel is desperate not to cross Erdogan, for whatever reason and is ready to make Germany look weak to salvage whatever deal she made with Turkey. It says a lot about our euro politicians. Unfortunately there is no strong freedom of speech tradition is Europe, unlike US where you can say almost everything without risking getting prosecuted by the state. And it makes all the difference in my opinion.
- wnkrshm 11y agoConcerning German law: It is up to the judges (throughout the instances but hopefully it will be finished witht he first trial) whether or not they see this as satire. There are no binding precedents in Germany, every case is only dealt with on the basis of the legal text (the exception being some judgements by the suppreme court). This of course gives the judges some freedom in this case, as with obscenity/pornography laws. But still, the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Böhmermann's intention was to insult Erdogan. He is not responsible for how his performance is interpreted by the public or Erdogan.