Nico Semsrott

Last updated

Nico Semsrott
MEP
2018 Nico Semsrott - by 2eight - DSC9507 (cropped).jpg
Member of the European Parliament
for Germany
Assumed office
2 July 2019
Relatives Arne Semsrott (Brother)
Website https://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 sits as an independent. [1]

Contents

Career

Entertainment

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

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 preelection Semsrott criticized 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 has published a video about the incidents on his YouTube channel, where he criticizes the way the security staff was 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 his party membership resignation from Die PARTEI after heavy controversies and accusations of racism and blackfacing emerged around the federal chairman Martin Sonneborn. Semsrott is going to continue his mandate in the European Parliament as an independent member of parliament. [17]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Democratic Party (Germany)</span> Political party in Germany

The Free Democratic Party is a liberal political party in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social Democratic Party of Germany</span> Centre-left political party in Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human Environment Animal Protection</span> Political party in Germany

The Human Environment Animal Protection Party is a political party in Germany, founded in 1993. In 2014, one of the party's candidates was elected to the European Parliament, and one candidate was elected again in 2019. The party's only EU representative resigned from the party in February 2020 and since this date the party has had no members in the European Parliament. The party has never had any members in any of the German state parliaments, nor has it ever had any members of the Bundestag.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Die PARTEI</span> German political party

Die Partei für Arbeit, Rechtsstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative, or Die PARTEI, is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazine Titanic. It is led by Martin Sonneborn. In the 2014 European Parliament election, the party won a seat, marking the first time that a satirical party has won a seat to the European Parliament. With the 2019 European Parliament election, the party gained a second seat, held by Nico Semsrott.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Kauch</span> German politician (born 1967)

Michael Kauch is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2024. He previously was a Member of the Bundestag between 2003 and 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Sonneborn</span> German satirist, journalist and politician

Martin Hans Sonneborn is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He is a founder and federal chairman of Die PARTEI. He was editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Titanic from 2000 to 2005 and works for Spiegel Online and ZDF.

Free Voters is a centre-right political party in Germany. The party originates as an umbrella organisation of several Free Voters Associations, associations of people which participate in an election without having the status of a registered party. These associations are usually locally-organised groups of voters in the form of a registered association (eV). In most cases, Free Voters campaign only at local government level, standing for city councils and for mayoralties. Free Voters tend to achieve their most successful electoral results in rural areas of southern Germany, appealing most to conservative voters who prefer local decisions to party politics. Free Voter groups are active in all of the states of Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 European Parliament election in Germany</span> Election of the delegation from Germany to the European Parliament in 2009

The German part of the 2009 European Parliament election was held on Sunday, 7 June. A total of 26 parties competed for the 99 seats reserved for Germany in the European Parliament. In the previous election of 2004, the six parties which were represented in the German national parliament (Bundestag) from 2005 to 2013, had entered the European Parliament by overcoming the 5% election threshold. The same parties entered the European Parliament this time. None of the other parties managed to gain more than 1.7%, but together the small parties exceeded 10% for the first time. At 43.3%, the voter turnout was just over the all-time low in the previous European election in Germany (43.0%).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 European Parliament election</span>

The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million people from 28 member states. In February 2018, the European Parliament had voted to decrease the number of MEPs from 751 to 705 if the United Kingdom were to withdraw from the European Union on 29 March 2019. However, the United Kingdom participated alongside other EU member states after an extension of Article 50 to 31 October 2019; therefore, the allocation of seats between the member states and the total number of seats remained as it had been in 2014. The Ninth European Parliament had its first plenary session on 2 July 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Liberals (Germany)</span> Association in Germany

The Social Liberals, formerly New Liberals, is an association and a former minor political party in Germany based in Berlin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damian Boeselager</span> German business consultant, journalist and politician

Damian Hieronymus Johannes Freiherr von Boeselager is a German business consultant, journalist and Volt Europa politician who has sat in the European Parliament since being elected in 2019.

The 2024 European Parliament election in Germany is scheduled to be held on 9 June 2024. This will be the tenth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first European Parliament election after Brexit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guido Reil</span> German politician

Guido Reil is a German politician who is serving as an Alternative for Germany Member of the European Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jutta Paulus</span> German politician

Jutta Paulus is a German politician Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and natural scientist, as well as former managing director of the laboratory LAUS GmbH in Kirrweiler/Pfalz. Since 2019, she is a Member of the European Parliament for Greens/EFA. Politico Europe magazine ranks Paulus among the most important politicians and policy makers in the European Union in the implementation of the European Green Deal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hannah Neumann</span> German politician

Hannah Neumann is a German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019.

Alexandra Geese is a German interpreter and politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aminata Touré (German politician)</span> German politician

Aminata Touré is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens, the German green party, who has been serving as Minister of Social Affairs, Youth, Family, Senior Citizens, Integration and Equality of the State of Schleswig-Holstein since 29 June 2022. She was elected on 29 June 2017, at the age of 25, to the State Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein and served as the parliament's vice-president until 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecological-Left Liberal Democratic Party</span> Political party in Germany

The Ecological-Left Liberal Democratic Party short-form: ÖLDP, formerly known as the Social Liberal Democratic Party, is a minor party in Germany primarily active in the Hamburger borough of Altona. The party was founded by the former SPD member Bérangère Bultheel in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volt Austria</span> Political party in Austria

Volt Austria is a socialliberal political party in Austria and the Austrian chapter of Volt Europa a progressive and Eurofederalist pan-European political party and movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FDP Hamburg</span> Regional state association of the FDP in Hamburg, Germany

The FDP Hamburg is the regional state association of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Hamburg. It was founded on September 20, 1945, as the first liberal state party in West Germany.

References

  1. 1 2 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. 1 2 Hanselmann, Matthias. "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. 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.