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Nico Semsrott

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Nico Semsrott
MEP
Member of the European Parliament
for Germany
Incumbent
Assumed office
2 July 2019
GroupGreens/EFA
ConstituencyGermany
Personal details
Born (1986-03-11) 11 March 1986 (age 38)
Hamburg, West Germany
Political partyIndependent (since 2021)
Other political
affiliations		Die PARTEI (before 2021)
RelativesArne Semsrott (brother)
Websitehttps://nicosemsrott.eu/

Nico Semsrott (born 11 March 1986) is a German Kabarett artist, slam poet, and politician. He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019 as a member of Die PARTEI, but left the party in 2021, and sat as an independent.[1]

Career

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Entertainment

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In school, he founded the satirical school newspaper Sophie's Underworld (German: Sophies Unterwelt) together with his younger brother, Arne Semsrott at the Hamburg Sophie-Barat-Schule [de]. Its sale was banned on the school grounds by the school's headmistress, though it was continued to be sold from a portable toilet.[2][3]

Since 2008, Semsrott has portrayed a depressive persona on poetry slams and cabarets. He usually introduces himself to the audience as a “demotivational speaker”.[4] This was also a profession on the ballot for the 2019 European elections.[1]

His first solo show, titled "Joy is just a lack of information" (German: Freude ist nur ein Mangel an Informationen), premiered on 14 June 2012 in Hamburg. He performed updated versions from Autumn 2014 until Christmas 2018. In 2019, Semsrott announced a pause in favor of his political work.[5][non-primary source needed] Semsrott was part of the ZDF heute-show team from 2017 until 2019, hosting the segment No Fun Facts.[6]

Politics

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Semsrott ran in the 2017 German federal election as leading candidate for Berlin for Die PARTEI, a satirical German political party, receiving 2.1% of the votes.[2][7]

In the 2019 European elections, Semsrott was elected to the European Parliament as the second party-list candidate (behind Martin Sonneborn) from Die PARTEI.[8][9] His party received 2.4%. Unlike other elections in Germany, there is no 5% electoral threshold concerning the European Parliament elections. In the run-up to the election Semsrott criticised the lack of attention given to younger generations in a TV advertisement.[10][11][12] A survey made after the election showed that votes for Die PARTEI came especially from first-time voters (about 9% of this group), who cast more votes for it than for the SPD or the FDP, two establishment parties.[13]

In May 2020, Semsrott revealed a series of thefts in the European Parliament.[14] He published a video about the incidents on his YouTube channel, where he criticised the way the security staff were handling the investigation.[15] He also published a timeline of the thefts and measures that were taken by him on his website.[16] On 13 January 2021, he announced the resignation of his party membership from Die PARTEI after heavy controversies and accusations of racism and blackfacing emerged around the federal chairman Martin Sonneborn. Semsrott has continued his mandate in the European Parliament as an independent member of parliament.[17] He did not stand in the 2024 European election.

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b Oltermann, Philip; Walker, Shaun; Giuffrida, Angela (27 May 2019). "An NBA star, a TV chef and a comedian: meet some of the new MEPs". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  2. ^ a b Hanselmann, Matthias (20 July 2017). "Nico und Arne Semsrott – Mal lustig, mal ernst – aber immer politisch" [Nico and Arne Semsrott: Sometimes funny, sometimes serious – but always political]. Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  3. ^ Benedikt Mandl (1 July 2005). "Pressekrieg um "Sophies Unterwelt"". Spiegel-Online (in German). Retrieved 3 September 2021.
  4. ^ "Nico Semsrott". nicosemsrott.eu. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  5. ^ "Nico Semsrott". facebook.com. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  6. ^ "No Fun Facts – Heute Show". zdf.de (in German). Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  7. ^ "Berlin Votes" (PDF).
  8. ^ "Key dates ahead". European Parliament. 20 May 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  9. ^ "Key dates ahead". BBC News. 22 May 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  10. ^ "LETZTWÄHLER - EINE GEFAHR FÜR EUROPA! (advertisement in German Public TV (ARD))". Youtube/Nico Semsrott. 25 April 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  11. ^ "Sonneborn bei der Europawahl : Mit Göbbels und Speer als Kandidaten" [Sonneborn at the European Election: With Göbbels and Speer as Candidates]. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 22 August 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  12. ^ Pichler, Nikolaus (28 May 2019). "Junge Wähler pushen Die Partei ins EU-Parlament – das sagt Nico Semsrott zum Wahlerfolg" [Young Voters Push Die PARTEI into the European Parliament – Nice Semsrott speaks about the electoral victory]. Stern. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  13. ^ "Europawahl: Satirepartei bei Erstwählern beliebter als SPD und FDP" [European Election: Satirical party more popular with first-time voters than the SPD and FDP]. RTL. 28 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  14. ^ "Diebstahlserie im EU-Parlament". Der Spiegel (in German). 2 July 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  15. ^ "In meinem Abgeordnetenbüro in Brüssel wurde eingebrochen!". YouTube (in German). Nico Semsrott. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  16. ^ "Neues Sicherheitssystem im Parlament eingeführt". Nico Semsrott (in German). Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  17. ^ "Humorlose Erklärung, warum ich aus Die PARTEI austrete". nicosemsrott.eu. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
  18. ^ "Nico gewinnt Finale | N-JOY XTRA – Entertainment – Comedy – Comedy Contest". 15 October 2013. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  19. ^ "Kulturbörsenpreis für fünf A-Cappella-Sängerinnen" [Cultural Expo Prize for Five A-Capella Singers]. Badische Zeitung (in German). 27 January 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
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