Why I’m Writing This

I know it’s maybe not the best idea to have my very first blog post be about politics, but I just finished listening to “Brüssel sehen und sterben” (Brussels: See It and Die) by Nico Semsrott and I need to talk about it.

This audiobook genuinely shook me. It’s a firsthand account of how broken the EU Parliament actually is - and not in the way you might think.

Who is Nico Semsrott?

Nico Semsrott is a German comedian who joined a satirical political party and got elected to the EU Parliament. He later left the party because he couldn’t support the founder’s increasingly racist and sexist jokes, but kept his mandate and continued as an independent.

He went into the EU Parliament knowing things were messed up, with the goal of bringing transparency. He published all his income, all subsidies, all budgets on a website publicly. He even wanted to create a site where people could vote on what he should fight for in Parliament and how he should use his budgets.

He used his advertising budget to donate tampons to women’s shelters instead of spending it on normal political ads.

And for all of this… the system fought him every step of the way.

The Core Problem: Corruption Is Easier Than Doing Good

This is what really hit me about the book:

If you want to pocket the money for yourself in the EU Parliament, it’s easy. If you want to use it for something meaningful, the system makes it nearly impossible.

The financial administration openly admits they can’t check everything. So they selectively enforce rules based on who they like. If you keep quiet about what you’re doing with the budgets, nobody cares. But if you try to be transparent like Semsrott? Suddenly every little thing is scrutinized.

The Tampon Initiative

Semsrott used his advertising budget (completely legally) to produce and donate 6,590 tampon boxes to fight period poverty. The packages had his parliamentary group’s branding on them, making it a legitimate advertising expense.

He distributed these to around 100 residential groups, women’s shelters, schools, and drug help centers across Germany and Vienna. People loved it. They asked him to do it again. It was actually making a difference - he saw this as the only concrete, meaningful action where he achieved tangible success during his time in Parliament.

And the financial administration complained about it. Officially. They sent him a letter telling him to pay attention to “economy, effectiveness and efficiency” in his spending. Even though it was completely legal and helping people who actually needed it.

The Transparency Website Nightmare

Semsrott wanted to expand his transparency website. The administration initially said no because it counted as “party advertising” - even though he wasn’t even part of a party anymore at that point.

It dragged on forever until they finally admitted “yeah okay, that reasoning was actually nonsense.”

The Random Payment Demands

Here’s the most absurd one: His transparency website took longer than originally planned to develop. The financial administration demanded he pay back money.

How much? He was supposed to make up a number himself.

During the conversation, the administrator literally said things like “500 euros would be too little… needs to be several thousand… but not a round number, that sounds made up…”

They were literally making it up on the spot. They admitted during the conversation that they were pulling the amount out of thin air.

Meanwhile, any random bullshit expense gets approved without question - but try to do something transparent and ethical? Suddenly you owe random amounts of money based on rules that don’t exist.

The Rules That Don’t Exist

Here’s something that drove Semsrott crazy: 90% of the rules you have to follow in the EU Parliament are never properly communicated to you.

• The financial administration has “internal rules” they use to judge your requests
• When you ask why something was rejected: “We have internal rules for how we evaluate this”
• Those rules are never published anywhere
• Even if something is approved, they can change their mind 1-2 years later and demand you pay it back
• Different people have different versions of what the rules even are
• He witnessed meetings where someone said “according to the new regulations we have to do it this way” - “what regulations?” - “Oh those haven’t been published yet”

It’s nearly impossible to follow rules that nobody will tell you.

You Get Rewarded For Being Rewarded

Semsrott describes how the system works: Politicians already earn an insane amount. But on top of that:

• Travel costs reimbursed
• Daily allowances for hotels
• You can get reimbursed for travel you didn’t even pay for (because you got the ticket for free)
• Business class booked as standard
• At events for wealthy people and politicians, tons of stuff is given away for free

He put it perfectly: “You get rewarded for being rewarded. And just to be sure, you get rewarded for that again.”

Meanwhile, the middle class who actually needs support? They get told to save and make sacrifices for the climate crisis.

The Real Power Structure: Billionaires > Politicians > You

This is what really broke me about the book. Semsrott shows how the actual power structure works:

Unelected people have more power than elected ones.

• The administration (not elected) has more power than politicians (elected)
• Billionaires (not elected) have more access to politicians than citizens (who elected them)

Think about that. An American billionaire can call Olaf Scholz directly. But you, as a German citizen living in a democracy where Scholz is supposed to represent you? You can’t.

A mayor supported by their entire city has less power to decide if a factory gets built than a billionaire with money and connections.

Politicians as Introduction to the Billionaire World

Semsrott describes how being a politician is like an introduction to the world of billionaires:

• Constantly invited to events by millionaires and billionaires
• Exposed to extreme wealth
• Many politicians start believing they deserve this
• They become disconnected from the middle class
• Then they say things like “I don’t even earn that much” while making more than 99% of people

This is why there’s such a gap between what the middle class actually needs and what politicians decide. They’re living in a different world.

Billionaires Should Take Responsibility

Here’s Semsrott’s (and my) take:

If billionaires have this much power to change the world - and they do - they should take responsibility for it.

A single politician in the EU Parliament can change almost nothing. But a single billionaire absolutely can.

So instead of putting the burden of the climate crisis on the middle class (“save energy! bike to work!”), we should be demanding billionaires use their wealth and power to actually fix it.

Semsrott jokes about a show concept: Give every billionaire one year to fight climate change. If they don’t, expropriate them.

And honestly? I agree. That sounds extreme, but if you’re the richest person in the world, you have the means to change things. Way more than the people we democratically elect.

Semsrott’s opinion: Everything over 100 million euros should be expropriated. No single person should have that much power just because they have that much money.

The Depression and Burnout

Semsrott already had depression before entering Parliament. It got worse.

Constantly seeing this truth about the world - that the system rewards corruption and punishes good intentions - took a massive toll on him.

He even says he became a worse person. You get used to it. You adapt. The system wears you down.

Eventually: burnout and exit.

And he says it himself - it would have been easier to just pocket the money, keep quiet, and not try to do anything meaningful. But he took the hard road. And the system destroyed him for it.

Some Criticism of the Book

To be fair, there are some issues:

Repetition: Semsrott sometimes repeats information when building on previous points. He’ll re-explain everything from earlier chapters. I’ve seen this criticism in other reviews too.

Personally, it didn’t bother me because the repetitions were never that long. But if you get annoyed by repeated info, it might bug you.

Speculation vs. Firsthand: Some parts are based on his observations and conclusions rather than direct firsthand experience. For example, he talks about lobbying and corruption, but since he was never successfully lobbied himself, some of it is him putting pieces together rather than witnessing it directly.

That said, his conclusions make complete sense based on what he did experience. And I agree with his take.

Should You Read/Listen to This?

Yes.

But understand what you’re getting into: This isn’t just about politics. It’s equally about life in the upper class, about billionaires, about the gap between the wealthy and everyone else.

Who This Is For

• Anyone who votes (or doesn’t vote) in elections
• People who wonder why politics feels broken
• Anyone interested in wealth inequality
• People who think “just vote better” will fix things
• Those who want to understand how the system actually works

It’s Still Better Than Nothing

Semsrott says it himself: Having this broken democracy is still better than having no democracy.

But the system is corrupt and broken. And it’s designed that way.

My Final Take

What stuck with me most: The system is designed to reward corruption and punish ethics.

The more you try to be transparent, the more you try to do good, the harder the system fights you. Meanwhile, corruption gets a free pass.

Semsrott’s experience is so relatable because it’s how I would react in that position. He went in idealistic, wanting to make things better, and the system ground him down until he left.

The fact that this can happen in the EU Parliament - supposedly one of the most progressive democratic institutions - is terrifying.

I don’t have solutions. Semsrott doesn’t offer easy answers. But we can’t fix problems we refuse to acknowledge.

And this is a problem we need to acknowledge.

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Have you read/listened to this? What did you think? I’d genuinely love to discuss this with someone. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk about it.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5) - Not because it was fun, but because it’s important and honest.