Hildegard Bachler is said to be richer by 100 euros: he gave the hundred to the farmer himself, says David Packer, top candidate on the “Best Upper Austria-BEST” list. Why this? The farmer’s wife had sent an opinion piece to “BESTE”, which was also a competition, and was the first to win. A hundred will also be raffled this and next week.
The list is running in eighth place in the state elections, and the competition is symptomatic of the program, or actually: for the fact that “BEST” does not have any in the traditional sense.
Because the mandataries should decide on their own initiative, if they come to the state parliament, nothing. “We are a start-up to fundamentally change politics,” says Packer. There should be “citizens’ councils” on every topic that becomes virulent. Its members would be determined by lot from the electorate. And because those who are determined by chance have to come to an agreement at some point and therefore no extreme position would prevail, “we are the moderate alternative,” says Packer, describing the underlying theory. As far as hundreds of people are concerned: Everyone in the Citizens’ Council (15 to 20 people, depending on the topic) should be compensated for their work with 100 euros per day and in cash. All of this is to be financed from party funding, which would exist as soon as one made it into the state parliament. “One million euros” can then be taken in hand, calculate the top candidate and second in the list, Nicola Steinkogler. It also promotes “collective intelligence” and awareness of democracy.
Packer, who introduces himself as an independent political advisor, has gathered around nine fellow campaigners, all of whom, as is emphasized, have no partisan past. The electoral goal was more modest: While there was initially talk of the “Project 100,000” (so many votes and a state council), Packer has now arrived at the “Project 35,000 to 40,000”.
