The satirist Sebastian “El Hotzo” Hotz has a large presence on X, formerly Twitter. He is currently being criticized for his comments on the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Who is the person you are talking about? Sebastian Hotz is a German satirist who has worked as a joke writer for Jan Böhmermann and his ZDF Magazin Royale, among others. However, many people will know him primarily through his presence on X, formerly Twitter, where he shares humorous short messages for his almost 700,000 followers under the name “El Hotzo”.
Currently, El Hotzo is trending not because of his pointed everyday observations, but because of a post about the shooting of Donald Trump, which many found to be tasteless.
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Critics demand dismissal and legal consequences
What did El Hotzo post? The satirist posted a meme on July 14, 2024, in response to the assassination attempt on American presidential candidate Trump. In it, he combines the terms “the last bus” and “Donald Trump” with “unfortunately, just missed it.”
For those who thought the message of the post was not clear enough, El Hotzo wrote unambiguously: “I think it’s absolutely fantastic when fascists die.” The comments have since been removed from the satirist’s X-account.
What were the reactions? Pretty critical. “El Hotzo” is currently trending on X with over 27,000 posts, including a lot of outrage. Vice President of the Bundestag and lawyer Wolfgang Kubicki saw the posts as “public approval of serious crimes.”
Some users are also demanding that Hotz should no longer be allowed to work for public broadcasting following his comments. However, there seems to be some confusion about exactly what kind of employment relationship the satirist has.
Some people expect ZDF to throw Hotz out (via X). In fact, the satirist doesn’t even work for the broadcaster and has probably only written freelance for ZDF Magazin Royale. El Hotzo also made a brief appearance on the show, ironically on the topic of cancel culture. The images we used for the cover image also come from this video (via YouTube)
It is true, however, that Hotz presents the program “Theoretisch cool” on the RBB radio station Fritz every third Sunday of the month. Critics are therefore demanding that all public broadcasters stop working with Hotz. There is even a petition for this, which has currently been signed by around 11,000 people.
Both ZDF and RBB distanced themselves from the statements. ZDF stressed to the Frankfurter Allgemeine that there was currently “no cooperation” with Hotz.
A spokesman for the RBB described the statements as “degrading to human dignity”. They had been used in “our broadcasts […] no room.” They now want to “contact the author.” A decision will then be made on how to proceed.
El Hotzo has so far taken the criticism in his stride. On July 14, he continued to taunt people with further posts:
The attack on Donald Trump has other unexpected consequences. For example, it leads to a game on Steam that had actually been forgotten suddenly seeing an increase in players. In a forgotten game on Steam, you save Donald Trump from an assassination attempt: Suddenly it is frighteningly topical
RBB ends cooperation with Sebastian Hotz
Update 16.7, 18:49: As reported by Die Zeit, the broadcaster RBB has terminated its cooperation with Sebastian Hotz until further notice.
His statements are not compatible with the values that the RBB stands for, said the program director.
Hotz had hosted the show “Theoretisch cool” on Radio Fritz since summer 2022.