You are allowed to hang a Confederate flag in your garden, one of the German Empire and of Saudi Arabia. Bumper stickers glorifying the Bundeswehr or the US Army are no problem at all. But what will not be allowed in the future are Z-symbols in public.

Z-symbols that stand for "For Victory" (Russian trans.: sa pobedu) and are intended to show support for the Russian army. Criminal proceedings have already been initiated against people who allegedly did the same. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the approval of a war of aggression is a criminal offense, just as, for example, theft or fraud are defined as criminal offenses. For this absurd thesis the legal basis with paragraph 140 StGB criminal code (reward and approval of criminal offences) must be constructed first laboriously. Here the reform of the § 140 StGB of 3 April 2022 comes conveniently, with which also the endorsement of "not yet committed serious crimes" is put under punishment. The whole thing, by the way, is being touted by the federal government as its usual woke approach to combating inhumane agitation and hatred on the Net.

This is supposed to be a crime.

This initiative is a new attack on freedom of expression and assembly that is unparalleled in terms of its radicalism and scope. If it holds up before the judiciary, there will be no limit to arbitrariness in the future. Then the corridor of opinion will be completely marked out from the government bench. Then solidarity with the peoples oppressed by them becomes an crime already on the symbolic level. Then surely even a "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh," as it resounded through the streets of West Berlin in the 1970s, becomes "approval of a crime." Glorifying the wars of aggression of the FRG or the participation in such, on the other hand, will remain unpunished. After all, the bombings of Yugoslavia or Yemen are not wars of aggression at all, but humanitarian interventions or peace-keeping measures - depending on which government politician you ask.