De Masi was born to a German language teacher and an Italian-born trade unionist. His Italian grandfather fought as a Partisan in Piedmont to liberate Italy from Fascism.[2] De Masi's father was a football amateur with SSC Napoli.[3]
De Masi was a member of the German Bundestag since the 2017 elections, representing Hamburg. In parliament, he was serving on the Finance Committee. In addition to his committee assignments, he was part of the German-British Parliamentary Friendship Group, the German-Italian Parliamentary Friendship Group, and the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the Southern African States. Since 2019, he was also a member of the German delegation to the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly. In March 2021 De Masi said that he will not run for the Bundestag in the 2021 German federal election.[6]
Di Masi has long been a companion of the political figure Sahra Wagenknecht. He founded the “Get Up” ("Aufstehen") movement together with Wagenknecht in 2018.[7]
On 13 September 2022, De Masi announced that he left The Left Party, stating that he would not want anymore to be taken into responsibility for the blatant failure of the relevant actors in this party.“[8][9]
Engagement in BSW
He joined the new populist party of his former boss Sahra Wagenknecht. De Masi appeared at the newly formed party's press conference on January 8, 2024, and indicated that he was seeking political office with the BSW at 2024 European Parliament election.[7][10] Together with Thomas Geisel, he wants to become the party's top candidate.[11]
While other members abandoned the Left Party after Wagenknecht's call to end sanctions against Russia,[12] de Masi followed her and continues to call for "freezing" the war[13] and spreads narratives suggesting that Russia's aggression was a reaction to a NATO expansion [14] or that a peace treaty would have been possible in 2023.[15] He has previously also characterized the downing of MH-17 in 2014 as a "crash", rather than a shooting down.[16]
Other activities
Berliner Steuergespräche, Member of the Adivsory Board[17]
