On a video call, 20-year-old Daniel Jackson, the self-proclaimed president of the Free Republic of Verdis, looks the part: He is sitting at a desk with the country’s flag to his right and a banner sporting the name of his country behind him.
Instead of a presidential palace, he is speaking from a humble house in Dover, a port city in the south of England. And the Free Republic of Verdis, the country he claims to have founded in 2019, is nothing more than a small strip of uninhabited forest on the border between Croatia and Serbia, more than 1,000 miles away.
And yet, because of a historical border dispute, Jackson, who was born in Australia, claims to be the land’s rightful owner and ruler.
Known as “Pocket 3,” the strip of forest roughly the size of the Vatican was among several left unclaimed by both countries after the Croatian war of independence ended in 1995.
Jackson now envisions a country that could be a draw for humanitarian aid workers.
“Verdis was an idea when I was about 14 but it came back, and actually, we actually properly created the state after I had turned 18,” he said. “The reason being is it was just an idea that initially came up with a lot of people that I know that did humanitarian work in Ukraine. And we wanted to do something that was a bit, a bit bigger than, you know, just doing aid to one country.”
He added, “We want to be a neutral state. We want to be a hub for NGOs. We have a massive humanitarian background.”
Those lofty goals may be tempered by the reality of neighboring countries who don’t recognize the existence of Verdis and may be hostile to its potential citizens.
“In October 2023 is when we started a settlement, and a few days later Croatian authorities quickly destroyed that settlement,” Jackson said, noting that he was given a permanent ban from Croatia and the other settlers were banned for three months.
He added, “I’ve been to Verdis a lot of times before Croatian authorities invaded Verdis. We did a lot of cadastral work, a lot of surveying. We planted a flag for the first time earlier that year.”
Jackson was at least partially inspired by Liberland, another unclaimed pocket of land between Croatia and Serbia that in 2015 was turned into a microstate by Czech politician Vít Jedlička.
It is a symbolic state that offers virtual citizenship and an economy based on cryptocurrencies, but it has not been recognized by any official country, and Croatian authorities have blocked physical access to it.
Jackson says that while he shares some principles with Liberland, he wants the Free Republic of Verdis to become an actual settlement whose citizens are driven by noble principles.
“We have the opportunity to test, for example, new systems of governance,” he said. “We can allow citizens to have a bit of a fresh start. So people coming from all over the world that want to try something new basically.”
For now, Verdis only exists on a website where people can apply for citizenship. According to Jackson, 15,000 people have applied so far, and 400 have already been handed over physical passports and IDs. Legitimate or not, Verdisian documents have been used to cross borders.
“There are instances of successful crossings but it’s not something that we will promote unless that country recognizes our documents officially,” Jackson chuckles.
Jackson says he now lives in “exile” in Dover, where he goes to the socializes with friends and plays video games.
Together with his minister of internal affairs and other officials he is planning to attend a protest outside the Croatian embassy in London, according to the Republic of Verdis’ official website.We will also hold a general meet-and-greet at a local cafe or pub after the protest,” the website says.
“While I am the president of Verdis, I still also live like any other 20-year-old,” Jackson said.
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