On 31 March 2016, the satirist Jan Böhmermann read a poem about the Turkish president on his ZDFneo show Neo Magazin Royale. He introduced it as an example of what is not allowed in Germany. “Ich habe ein Gedicht, das heißt ‚Schmähkritik’.” I have a poem, and it is called abusive criticism. Prosecutors in Mainz closed the criminal investigation in October 2016. In the civil case, the courts in Hamburg banned the defamatory lines. On appeal, 18 of the 24 lines stayed banned. In January 2022 the Federal Constitutional Court declined to hear Böhmermann’s complaint. Long before that, in June 2017, the Bundestag had voted unanimously to abolish Section 103 of the Criminal Code. It was the offense of insulting the organs and representatives of foreign states.