Image Credit: Screenshots | X / Stern 
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that his administration will offer asylum to politically persecuted Europeans — people punished for opposing globalist censorship and government repression.
Few cases show how urgent that promise has become better than that of Petr Bystron, a member of European Parliament for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), who has just been fined €11,250 for sharing a satirical meme.
In Today’s Germany, Satire Has Become a Crime
A Bavarian court ruled that Bystron’s 2022 meme — showing several German politicians symbolically “waving goodbye” to Ukraine’s former ambassador Andrij Melnyk — constituted the “use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations.” Prosecutors claimed the raised hands resembled “Hitler salutes.”
The meme was a piece of political satire pointing out Berlin’s support for Melnyk, a diplomat who openly praised Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera, responsible for the massacres of Jews and Poles during World War II. But instead of being recognized as satire, it was treated as a criminal act.
Melnyk’s Nazi Apologism: No Problem for Berlin
Melnyk was recalled from Germany after telling journalist Tilo Jung that Bandera was “no mass murderer of Jews or Poles.” The remark caused outrage in Poland, Israel, and among historians — yet in Berlin, there was no scandal. Even after his recall, President Volodymyr Zelensky promoted Melnyk to Deputy Foreign Minister.
Bystron’s meme highlighted this grotesque double standard — and for that, he was prosecuted.
Political Timing: The Case Appears During the EU Elections
For two years, the meme was online without consequence. Then, during the 2024 EU election campaign, prosecutors suddenly launched a case — just as Bystron became one of the AfD’s most visible foreign policy voices.
Bystron stated: “The judiciary is being used as a political weapon to discredit the AfD.”
The timing leaves little doubt: this was political persecution disguised as law enforcement.
Double Standards: Stern Praised, AfD Punished
Germany’s mainstream magazine Stern published a 2017 cover showing Donald Trump performing a Nazi salute with the headline “Sein Kampf” (“His Struggle”). No prosecutors, no charges, no fines — instead, the cover was celebrated as “bold political art.”
The contrast is glaring: when the left mocks Trump, it’s art; when the right mocks a Nazi sympathizer, it’s criminal.
When Waving Becomes a Crime
Bystron has faced similar accusations before. In 2022, he was accused of performing a Hitler salute at an anti-lockdown protest — simply because he waved to the crowd. The case was dropped after he presented a photo of Angela Merkel making the exact same gesture.
Bystron summed up the absurdity: “When Merkel waves, it’s polite. When I wave, it’s a crime. And when I show Merkel waving — it’s a crime again.”
Political Persecution Masquerading as Justice
This case exposes how far Germany’s judiciary has strayed from equality before the law. Article 3 of Germany’s Basic Law, which guarantees equal treatment, no longer seems to apply to opposition politicians.
While left-wing media can freely use Nazi imagery against conservatives, conservatives who expose Nazi apologism are punished.
A Warning From Germany to the Free World
Bystron’s conviction shows that Germany’s justice system is now openly political. The nation that once vowed “never again” to authoritarianism is prosecuting elected officials for criticizing Nazi sympathizers.
President Trump’s offer of asylum to Europe’s politically persecuted is therefore more than symbolic — it’s becoming a lifeline.
When even criticizing a Nazi collaborator is outlawed, the West’s moral compass has truly collapsed. Germany has once again become a place where dissent is criminal — and where freedom must flee abroad to survive.
