January 17, 2013
German Jewish activist voted sexiest female politician
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Marina Weisband. Photo by Tobias M. Eckrich
A 25-year-old Jewish woman has been voted Germany's sexiest female politician.
Marina Weisband, 25, a leading member of the "Pirate Party Germany," took first place in a Playboy online poll with 29 percent of the votes. According to the Bild Zeitung newspaper, 1,000 people took part in the poll.
Coming in second was the Left Party politician Sahra Wagenknecht, with 28 percent of the vote.
Weisband came to Germany with her family from Ukraine in 1994, in the wave of Jewish emigration following the fall of the Berlin Wall and. the collapse of the Soviet Union. She joined the Pirate Party - a progressive liberal party that promotes Internet freedom - in 2009 and served as its executive director from May 2011 to April 2012. During her tenure, she reportedly took on the issue of anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism among some party members.
Weisband now is pursuing a PhD in psychology. She has not ruled out a return to political activism but will not run as a candidate for the Bundestag this year.
The Bild newspaper notes that Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, age 58, got only 3 percent of the Playboy vote.
