Europe is going totalitarian everywhere. Just yesterday Hungary arrested 7 private individuals for carrying gold. Granted it was a big amount $40m but there was no probable cause for arrest.

Technically, the slogan says "Lick balls Merz" (any balls are fine).

While I am happy to see that this causes Streisand, I am not sure why this reaches the frontpage of HN. Is there anything special?

Name-calling and specific accusations that cause damage are so different. This is really a blight on Germany's system, if this is considered slander.

The translations in this article are wrong.

> According to Germany's Criminal Code, defamation statutes apply when someone knowingly asserts or disseminates untrue statements about another person

It seems more likely to be under the Insult clause of that statute:

> Insult (§185 StGB): Covers disrespectful, demeaning, or contemptuous statements made to or about someone, including public insults.

That's a pretty heavy handed law.

I have to say correctly so. It is a case of "ROMANES EUNT DOMUS" [1]. What is "Lick eggs Merz" supposed to mean? In order to be a proper political message on a proper demonstration of proper school kids, it should at least say who's eggs Merz should lick and why. And clearly hint why that is either good or bad. Which would give Merz the opportunity to reflect and change his behaviour.

[1] From the Life of Brian

My prediction is that the US war with Iran will lead to severe oil / gas shortages, which will be devastating for the German industry (think job loss, not necessarily people freezing to death). This year the winter started at 75% gas reserves and we're currently at 20% and we're lucky to have a warm winter. Now, next year Germany wants to exit completely from Russian gas (currently still served via Turkish pipelines) and LNG imports will have even more shortages thanks to the Iran war. So, analysts predicted that we can at most fill our gas reserves to 50% this summer, which will basically make the reserves go to 0% or negative in the next winter period. It's basic physics / geopolitics and there's little that any party can do at this point. Which will repel any industry first this year (even worse job market than last year), and then hit people at home later with energy / food / gasoline prices. Expect official government propaganda to be denying everything until the last second.

The German government fudged the official propaganda numbers on gas statistics now or are straight up lying because it would be bad for elections this year. I'm personally not voting because I consider the situation as hopeless either way, no matter what party you look at it's not a problem that voting can fix.

As it is more likely, "we" (I'm German, sadly) will this/next year go to war with Iran "to defend democracy", so they'll re-introduce the draft in 2027, etc. In any case, I'll have to try to switch countries this year as I'll hopefully have the ability to move abroad this year. If German politicians think they're above physics then I wish them good luck, this is just a heads up comment for other Germans who don't know what's going on.