Bild blues + Merkel the great

Dear Reader,

• The head of Germany’s most powerful media empire, the company that publishes Bild Zeitung, you will be surprised to hear is a hot-headed, opinionated sort of chap. In internal company emails, Axel Springer boss Mathias Döpfner says things like “east Germans are either fascists or communists” or Angela Merkel was “hammering the last nail into the coffin of democracy” with her lockdown policies. We know this because rival news outlet Die Zeit got hold of a trove of emails sent by Döpfner and has published the juiciest ones. For anyone who doesn’t read Bild Zeitung, we now know that the newspaper’s boss doesn’t like Merkel, the Green party, wind farms or Islam. According to Die Zeit, it published the emails because they show how “far right” the head of Germany’s biggest publishing house is and how he used his position to try and influence the public’s voting intentions. The report caused something of a national sensation, with various politicians calling for Döpfner to resign…