The SPD parliamentary faction has welcomed the proposed stricter penalties for sexual harassment set forth by Federal Minister of Justice Stefanie Hubig (SPD). Carmen Wegge, legal policy spokesperson for the SPD faction, told “Die Welt” that non-verbal and verbal sexual assaults in public disproportionately affect women. She emphasized that when a man describes where he wants to touch her, or harasses her in public, it is absolutely not a compliment. Wegge added that women are forced to avoid public places at night, change sides on the street, and learn to simply smile at these offensive “compliments.” These assaults generate fear and coping strategies of avoidance. The SPD politician concluded that society cannot accept this, stating that the country must be secure for women, necessitating a specific provision in the criminal code for acts that have such a profound impact.
In contrast, Constanze Geiert, the Minister of Justice for Saxony (CDU), rejected the call for increased penalties for harassment. She argued that not every act of bad taste warrants criminal classification, emphasizing that the criminal law is “the sharpest sword of the rule of law and not a supermoral institution.” Geiert further cautioned that experiences from the Netherlands demonstrated how limited the impact of such criminal provisions has been so far. She criticized the Federal Ministry of Justice for proposing a provision with unclear legal boundaries, warning that this would raise expectations that the criminal procedure in practice might not be able to meet. For Geiert, the focus should be on effective protection against sexual violence and harassment, rather than merely symbolic policies within the criminal code.
