Nico Semsrott
Nico Semsrott (born 11 March 1986) is a German Kabarett artist, politician (independent) and slam poet who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019 as a member of Die PARTEI. Career. Entertainment. In school, he founded the satirical school newspaper "Sophie's Underworld" () together with his younger brother, at the Hamburg . Its sale was banned on the school grounds by the school's headmistress, though it was continued to be sold from a portable toilet. Since 2008, Semsrott has portrayed a depressive persona on poetry slams and cabarets. He usually introduces himself to the  audience as a “demotivational speaker”. This was also a profession on the ballot for the 2019 European elections. His first solo show, titled "Joy is just a lack of information" (), 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. Semsrott was part of the ZDF heute-show team from 2017 until 2019, hosting the segment "No Fun Facts." 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. In the 2019 European elections, Semsrott was elected to the European Parliament as the second party-list candidate (behind Martin Sonneborn) from Die PARTEI. 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. 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. In May 2020 Semsrott revealed a series of thefts in the European Parliament. He has published a video about the incidents on his YouTube channel, where he criticizes the way the security staff is handling the investigation. He also published a timeline of the thefts and measures that were taken by him on his website. On the 13th of January 2021 he announced his party membership resignation from Die PARTEI after heavy controversies and accusations of racism and blackfacing aroused around the federal chairman Martin Sonneborn. Semsrott is going to continue his mandate in the  European Parliament as an independent member of parliament.