Politico Owner’s CEO Praised Climate Change, Compared Pandemic Response to Nazi Germany, Leaked Texts Show
The German CEO of European publishing giant and Politico owner Alex Springer SE is defending himself after messages of his were published in which he praised climate change and compared the COVID pandemic response to the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis in the 1930s.
Mathias D?pfner said in an internal statement to Alex Springer employees that was obtained by The Guardian that his messages were taken out of context in Die Zeit’s report and his long track record of content was the true barometer of his politics.
“Articles of mine published over four decades show the way I think,” D?pfner said Thursday in the statement. “I let myself be taken to account for every published word. But out-of-context fragments of texts and conversations cannot be held up as my ‘true way of thinking.'”
According to the texts and other messages published Wednesday by Die Zeit, D?pfner also used his most prominent publication, the German tabloid Bild, to influence Germany’s most recent election.
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“I am all for climate change,” one message sent by D?pfner said, as he seemed to argue that history held ample evidence of human’s increased productivity during global eras of warmer climates. “We shouldn’t fight climate change but adjust to it.”
The message was part of a longer rant by D?pfner on foreign policy matters.
“Free west, f–k the intolerant Muslims and all the other riff-raff,” said D?pfner, who has touted Alex Springer’s August 2021 acquisition of Politico as an effort to inject “non-partisan” journalism into the politically polarized landscape of U.S. media.
D?pfner, who has a seat on Netflix’s board of directors, tried to clarify his remarks on climate change in the internal company response, saying “climate change is real and threatening” but that reactions to the subject were open to humorous takes.
D?pfner also blasted restrictions enacted in Germany at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That is the end of the market economy,” D?pfner said, adding it was “the beginning of 33” in a reference to the year Hitler became Germany’s chancellor and transitioned the country to a dictatorship.
Die Zeit also published a D?pfner message that lauded Donald Trump and even called for the former U.S. president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize after the U.S. drone strike of January 2020 that killed Iranian general Qassem Suleimani.
“My suggestion. Nobel peace prize for Trump. And take it away from ibama,” the message reads, referencing Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize of 2009.
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