European Parliament Discovers Political Satire Is Free Speech When the Politician Is Donald Trump

A 2.5-metre statue of Donald Trump, naked, covered in 23-karat gold and carrying an enormous golf club, was unveiled inside the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday the 6th of October.

The sculpture by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt is called “Orange Plague” and “King of Injustice.”

Danish left-wing MEP Per Clausen invited the artist, and the statue was installed at one of Parliament’s busiest connecting passages, where it is scheduled to remain until Thursday.

European Parliament rules explicitly allow MEPs to organise up to two cultural events or exhibitions per year in Parliament’s public areas, but they require authorisation from the relevant Quaestor. So this went through Parliament’s internal exhibition procedure and was authorised for display in the building. 

Who paid the transport and exhibition costs has not been publicly disclosed.

Clausen even provided the appropriate explanation:

“If someone is so thin-skinned that they cannot tolerate this sculpture being exhibited in the European Parliament, they have no place on the world stage.”

Excellent.

We should probably print that sentence above every German prosecutor’s office.

Germany currently has a special provision, Section 188 of its criminal code, covering insults, defamation and slander directed at people in political life. Depending on the offence, it allows penalties including imprisonment of up to three years. The law has produced investigations over Germans calling politicians things such as “Schwachkopf”, “Lügenfritz,” “Pinocchio” and “Lackaffe.”

A pensioner had his home searched after sharing a meme referring to then-economy minister Robert Habeck as a “Schwachkopf,” roughly an idiot.

Another man was fined after calling Friedrich Merz “Lügenfritz.” A separate “Lackaffe” case was closed after a €100 payment. German authorities have investigated thousands of suspected offences involving insults against politicians in recent years.

And then there was the man who shared a joke about former Green Party leader Ricarda Lang: “In the past, fat and stupid were two people,” a reference to the German name for Laurel and Hardy. He was ordered to pay €300, according to German media reports.

Long live American freedom of speech. Europe clearly needs to import that one.