My Vote Counts! (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

: ''Meine Stimme Gilt!''), abbreviated as G!LT, is a

political party in Austria This article lists political parties in Austria. Austria has a multi-party system. Of the over 1,100 registered political parties, only few are known to the larger public. Since the 1980s, four parties have consistently received enough votes to g ...

. It was founded on 14 August 2016 by

Roland Düringer Roland Düringer (born 31 October 1963) is an Austrian actor, cabarettist and political activist. He appeared in more than thirty films since 1985. He founded the political party My Vote Counts!, which will participate nationwide in the Austria ...

, a popular Austrian comedian. It defines itself not as a party but as an un-party (

: ''Partei'') proposing a new, decentralised democratic system somewhat similar to

demarchy In governance, sortition (also known as selection by lottery, selection by lot, allotment, demarchy, stochocracy, aleatoric democracy, democratic lottery, and lottocracy) is the selection of political officials as a random sample from a larger ...

. The party is

anti-establishment An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine ''New Statesman'' ...

and criticises the government of the many by only a few elected politicians. GILT aims to implement an affirmative human right to participate in political decision making. The party was on the ballot in all

Austrian states Austria is a federal republic made up of nine States (German: ''Länder''). Since ''Land'' is also the German word for "country", the term (literally ''federal states'') is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The Constitution of Austria uses ...

. The message of the party is to give a voice to people that do not trust the establishment, as a privileged political elite is not representative of the

general will In political philosophy, the general will (french: volonté générale) is the will of the people as a whole. The term was made famous by 18th-century Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Basic ideas The phrase "general will", as Rousseau ...

of the people. Already, about 24,760

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s has been raised to support the party. The Party had no programme for the earlier than expected 2017 elections, stating: "Party programmes do not solve problems, only reliable citizens do," and in order to represent all citizens they choose their MPs for the 2017 parliamentary election by random drawing, an approach which they will not repeat. For upcoming elections, GILT has announced that the citizens will choose their MPs in a "candidate competition". As a second key change, GILT has announced that it will enter the next elections with a programme decided by several of the un-party's "citizen parliaments".

References

Political parties in Austria Political parties established in 2016 2016 establishments in Austria {{Austria-party-stub