Career
A childcare worker, Susanne Wiest is well known in Germany for having launched a petition to the German Parliament asking for the implementation of a basic income of 1,000 Euros a month. The petition went so viral that not only did it receive more than 52,000 signatures of support, but the hosting services were overloaded in the last days of the collection period, forcing the Bundestag to extend the duration of the petition for one week. The petition then was accepted and Susanne Wiest was invited for a hearing at the Bundestag"s Commission of Petitions.
The hearing took place on November 8, 2010 following which Wiest was featured in the German media.
In June 2013, the petition was finally closed by the Parliament, thus depriving the supporters of basic income of any parliamentary debate on the issue. Susanne Wiest ran in the legislative elections in 2009 as a free candidate.
She received 1,2% of the votes cast.