The attacks on freedom of expression are occurring at ever shorter intervals. They affect citizens who criticize politicians, columnists who make satirical comments, people who are reported for insubordinate opinions about members of a state-recognized victim group or people who are targeted by investigative authorities because of the newly created offense of delegitimizing the state.

Unwelcome postings lead to house searches

Specifically, the latter were about terms and images that were identified as National Socialist. They had used such signs in the context of criticism of right-wing national organizations, of Putin and of the left-wing daily newspaper taz and were therefore in no way guilty of promoting National Socialism, but on the contrary criticized anti-democratic tendencies.

But the authorities weren’t interested. In the case of the publicist Bolz and the Habeck critic, there were even house searches. Nobody wants to experience something like that. The effect of such measures is clear: citizens are intimidated and no longer dare to express their opinions publicly. Surveys confirm this. Only 46 percent believe one Study by the Allensbach Institute for Demoscopy from October 2025 to be able to express one’s own opinion freely.

How is it that freedom is so easily given up?

Freedom of expression, press, art and science are constitutive of liberal democracy. They were fought over for centuries, and some people even lost their lives.

Despite many setbacks, the battle was ultimately won and we currently live in the freest society ever. Civil rights are anchored in the Basic Law. So how is it that these achievements are so easily abandoned?

Conformism became the most important quality in science

Restrictions on constitutionally guaranteed freedoms have existed since left-woke activists enforced their ideology in an increasingly aggressive culture war in all areas of society. It began at universities with restrictions on academic freedom. Anyone who worked on Islamism, represented critical positions on migration policy or was unwilling to give up scientific facts about the biological binary gender was canceled and excluded from the respective specialist community. Lectures were canceled, research funding was cut off, books were no longer reviewed.

Anyone who was young and did not yet have a permanent job could be sure that they would never get one. Anticipatory submission and the ability to cry with wolves became the most important skills for an academic career in the humanities.

Ever since editor Julia Ruhs went public, we have known that you have to be woke in license-financed broadcasting in order not to be persecuted by hatred and agitation. Of course, the exclusion and obstruction of conservative authors is not called that, because the terms hate and incitement are only intended for people who oppose a woke agenda. As do the Nazi speech satires that were criticized.

Leftists are not afraid to use Nazi slogans to discredit those who think differently, but so far no case has been heard of that led to police investigations. When a journalist from the Süddeutsche Zeitung posted on X in January 2025: “Sieg Heil, dear @CDU,” he came away with an apology.

The state is also eroding freedom of expression

The fact that the police and public prosecutors are apparently becoming more and more active is due to a worrying development. It is no longer “just” non-state institutions in which freedom of expression is being undermined, but it is now the state that is making itself the enforcer of a woke ideology.

Reporting centers against alleged discrimination against selected groups of people are also springing up in Union-led countries, a series of regulations are being introduced for the censorship of social media and politicians such as the Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein are publicly mobilizing against media that do not represent their opinions.

Now would be the time of the Liberals – but the FDP is evaporating

Now should actually be the time for the liberals. A party that does everything it can to promote civil liberties would have to gain wings. Classically this would be the FDP. But anyone who looks at the political landscape will see that the FDP is gradually evaporating. She is currently in Baden-Württemberg, one of her home countries, failed at the five percent hurdle. What happened?

Apart from the image of political arbitrariness that its staff portrays, it is precisely the lack of sensitivity to freedom that has become the party’s downfall. It was the FDP that, during the traffic light government, approved the so-called self-determination law, which not only makes an annual official gender change possible, but also provides for a fine of up to 10,000 euros for those who call “trans people” by their former first name.

Only a few in the FDP still hold the flag of freedom high

Specifically, this means that a bearded man who pretends to be a woman must be addressed with a woman’s name. The “So Done” agency, founded by the former federal chairwoman of the Young Liberals and an FDP politician, is also anti-liberal. It uses artificial intelligence to search the Internet for insults from politicians, which then issue warnings. If the lawsuit is successful, “So Done” receives 50 percent of the compensation amount, the other half goes to the injured parties.

The fact that European Minister Agnes Strack-Zimmermann is particularly keen on using “So Done” does not make the party particularly attractive to freedom-lovers. It is of little use that FDP veteran Wolfgang Kubicki holds up the flag of freedom and the always clear Linda Teuteberg does not hold back with her criticism. A party that wants to be seen as a fighter for civil liberties needs more than a handful of liberal-minded people.