‘I’m all for climate change’: Axel Springer CEO faces heat over leaked messages

Mathias Döpfner’s reported comments on climate, Muslims and east Germany – and his apparent political manoeuvring – create shockwaves

The German CEO of Europe’s largest media publisher tried to use his flagship tabloid, Bild, to influence the outcome of Germany’s last election and fed the newspaper his personal views attacking climate change activism, Covid measures and ex-chancellor Angela Merkel, leaked messages suggest.

The internal chats, emails and text messages published by German weekly Die Zeit on Wednesday clash with the public presentation of Axel Springer SE’s chief executive Mathias Döpfner, who recently said he wanted to bring “non-partisan” journalism to a too-polarised US media landscape through his acquisition of English-language title Politico.