Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also don't understand how this can be in legal in the sense of the GDPR, but AFAIK there are multiple German news sites which use this pattern (e.g. Golem, Heise and Spiegel from the top of my head).
Why would it be a GDPR violation? As I understood it, the point of the GDPR is to prevent people from being tracked without knowing about it and consenting to it. Here the consent button is as obvious as it could be, you really can't miss it.
Consent is given freely, otherwise it is coercion.