Not true. Germany can prosecute you for "insulting the public officials", Spain - for "insulting the royal family", Poland for "offending the Polish nation", Italy for widely interpreted "criminal defamation", in Greece it is illegal to insult the president, parliament or public officials, in Ukraine saying anything against the prevailing narrative lands you directly in a torture dungeon (like what happened with Gonzalo Lira, who lived in Kharkiv, and was arrested, tortured, and left to die of pneumonia by Ukrainian SBU).
At the risk of stating the obvious, you can criticise the government without personally insulting public officals. In fact, in Germany, you can be prosecuted for insulting anyone; there is nothing special about public officials.