A childcare worker, Susanne Wiest is known in Germany for having launched a petition to the German Parliament[2] asking for the implementation of a basic income in Germany 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,[3] forcing the Bundestag to extend the duration of the petition by one week.[4]
The petition then was accepted and Wiest was invited for a hearing at the Bundestag's Commission of Petitions. The hearing took place on 8 November 2010[5] following which Wiest was featured in the German media. In June 2013, the petition was finally closed by the Parliament,[6] thus depriving the supporters of basic income of any parliamentary debate on the issue.
On 14 March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, Wiest started another petition to the Bundestag, which was quickly signed by more than 100,000 people.
