Almost two years have passed since Vit Jedlicka proclaimed the Free State of Liberland on 7km of marshy land on the left banks of the Danube, and another milestone in this intriguing story on January 17, 2017 - Liberland discused in the Croatian Parliament, as controversial MP Ivan Pernar highlights the treatment of President Jedlicka by the Croatian authorities, as well as some of the absurdities of arresting people on territory it does not claim as Croatia's.
Dismissed as an amusing - and very viral - joke less than two years ago when a Czech politician, his girlfiend and a friend hoisted a flag on an unwanted marshy territory between Croatia and Serbia, claiming it for himself under the law 'terra nullius' and declaring the creation of the Free State of Liberland.
Jedlicka was dismissed as an amusing buffoon, and yet, as Liberland approaches the third year of its self-proclaimed existence, it is a story which refuses to go away. Jedlicka has been arrested and detained for entering Liberland. While there is no border between the territory to the West, the eastern approach to Liberland is directly from the Danube River, and it is somewhat absurd for a country with no territorial claims on territory to arrest someone for entering it from an international waterway. But such is the complexity and bizarred nature (where is Evelyn Waugh when you need him?), that that is what has happened.
Enter Croatia's most controversial politician of the moment, Ivan Pernar, who made national headlines recently for his outspoken comments about the Catholic Church. TCN interviewed him soon after - an interview you can read here.
Pernar addressed the Croatian Parliament on the treatment of President Jedlicka and the case of Liberland for 15 minutes yesterday, a speech you can watch here with English subtitles. It finished with address to the Croatian Parliament from President Jedlicka, the text of which you can read below.
As someone who has followed the Liberland story closely (read more about last year's anniversary conference with heavy Croatian police presence), and there is a lot more to the Liberland story than meets the eye. A great documentary on that weekend last April explains some of the issues in a little more depth, including TCN guiding an American film crew to the hidden Croatian villages on the Serbian side of the Danube. Watch it below.
Freedom for Liberland! from MEL Films on Vimeo.
Dear members of the Croatian parliament, ladies and gentleman,
First let me congratulate you on the 25th anniversary of international recognition of Croatia which you have celebrated on January 15th. It is a very significant event in Croatian history. It has taken a lot of effort to establish and build your country, one that I respect and admire. I represent a peaceful and freedom loving nation of people who stand ready to cooperate with Croatia. Out of 400,000 applicants for citizenship, many are world-famous architects, artists, investors, entrepreneurs or diplomats. We believe that human freedom, limited government and free markets are the best elements to achieve a flourishing society.
We are working on incorporation of the best governance practices of the past with the decentralized governance technologies of the future. We are inspired by successful places like Hong Kong or Monaco which are constantly delivering significant value to its neighbouring countries. There are already thousands of entrepreneurs who expressed direct interest in making investments into our country. Our economists have calculated that a full development of Liberland could help boost economic growth in Croatia by one percent per year and dramatically reduce unemployment in the whole region.
Our nation was established on 13th April of 2015 on the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, but you can trace its origins way back in history. Starting with the Exodus of ancient times, we saw this manifest itself again as the American revolution and recently as Liberland. We have chosen an unclaimed piece of land formerly known as Gorna Siga in order to avoid any territorial disputes with other countries. We have set our borders outside the territory of Croatia as well as outside the Schengen area. We highly appreciate that Croatia police are continuing to protect the borders and we stand ready to help them and work with them. We also stand ready to be reliable partners in Croatian foreign policy. Liberland today opened representative offices in more than 80 countries who aim to work in concert with Croatian diplomatic missions.
Liberland is only seven square kilometers large making it third smallest country in the world after Vatican and Monaco. We kindly ask you to respect our right to peacefully occupy this piece of land. We are ready to open up a dialogue between the Croatian and Liberland governments to define our proper border crossing in accordance with international laws. We stand ready to cooperate in the areas of illegal drug trafficking, extradition of criminals, terrorism, tax avoidance and other areas of your concern. We thank you for your patience as we are working hard to fully establish our institutions, including our legal and financial system.
Croatians do have an important historical experience with harboring freedom-oriented enclaves. I would like to remind you about just one example - the Republic of Ragusa in Dubrovnik and Dalmatia and the great benefits that it brought to the whole region and the world.
We would like to build up on that historical experience and in cooperation with Croatia become a shining example for the rest of the world.
One of the key aspects that ensured the existence of Ragusa was the high regard for liberty which was in the very motto of the Republic, “Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world.” Our motto is “Live and Let Live.”
If you share our common belief in freedom, I invite you to become a part and to come and celebrate the second year of Liberland’s existence on 13th of April 2017 in Liberland!
Our highest intention is to cooperate with both regional and central Croatian governments on the economic growth of the territory, so as to ensure that Croatia can function in harmony with Liberland as a part of its close neighbourhood.
