As of: February 6, 2024, 6:30 p.m
By: Gerti Reichl
Comments
Press
Split
Michael Much had hung this poster on his property.
Now he has to pay a fine for it.
© private
It's about an anti-Green poster that the Gmund entrepreneur Michael Much attached to his fence in 2023.
He is supposed to pay a fine of 6,000 euros and will therefore go to court in March.
Gmund - While Germany is being overwhelmed by demos, protests and strikes these days and the participants and initiators are not sparing with harsh criticism, sometimes below the belt, a Gmunder is on trial.
As it now turns out, it is entrepreneur Michael Much (52).
He is ordered to pay a fine of 6,000 euros because last fall, shortly before the state elections in Bavaria, he had attached two posters to the fence on his private property in a clearly visible location on federal highway 307.
He is said to have denigrated top politicians from the Green Party.
And this is exactly what the Bavarian judicial authorities see as a punishable insult.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Economics Minister Robert Habeck, Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir and Green Party leader Riccarda Lang can be seen on a poster.
The latter is depicted as a steamroller with the sentence “We’ll flatten everything” above it.
And below it is Habeck's sentence, published in 2010, “I always found love of the fatherland sickening.”
Another poster shows Robert Habeck holding up three fingers on a typical party-green background.
The quote formulated by Habeck in a talk show: “Companies don’t go bankrupt, they just stop producing” is supplemented with the provocative question: “Can he even count to 3?”
The police had the posters removed and confiscated - and Michael Much had to deal with the justice system.
Unlike in Hesse: There these same posters only caused a harsh press release from the major parties.
However, in Much's case, the Munich II public prosecutor's office imposed a fine of 6,000 euros for "criminal insult to politicians."
Much filed an objection and is therefore in court.
On March 21st, there will be a public hearing at the Miesbach district court as to whether hanging up these posters is actually a criminal offense.
Entrepreneur should pay fine because of poster - lawyer relies on freedom of expression
“I received a lot of encouragement,” says Much when asked by our newspaper and reports how the poster campaign came about.
He saw the posters on the Internet, made contact with an entrepreneur and was then given the posters free of charge.
“The whole thing took place in September 2023,” says Much, who is a member of the local CSU chapter.
“It was only then that all the protests started.
And in comparison, the two posters are harmless.” As an entrepreneur, which he has been for almost 30 years, and as an employer of 32 employees, he decided to put up the posters.
And out of conviction that things can no longer go on like this.
“The people are just being fleeced, but the country is not being governed well.
And people can’t put up with that anymore,” says Much.
It remains to be seen whether criticism of the Greens is actually a criminal offense and whether it is really a punishable insult or criticism of the government.
Much will be present at the hearing himself.
His Berlin lawyer Christoph Partsch will defend him, says Much.
He reported to Cicero that the content of the poster was “fully covered by the freedom of expression guaranteed in Article 5 of the Basic Law.”
gr