man declares country in unclaimed pocket of land between Serbia and Croatia

During a video call, Daniel Jackson, 20, the self -proclaimed President of the free republic of Verdis, looks at the game: he sits at an office with the country’s flag on his right and a banner sporting the name of his country behind him.

Instead of a presidential palace, he speaks of 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 band of uninhabited forest on the border between Croatia and Serbia, more than 1,000 miles from there.

And yet, due to a historic border dispute, Jackson, born in Australia, claims to be the owner and the sovereign of the field.

Known as “Pocket 3”, the Vatican size forest band was among several left left by the two countries after the end of the Croatian war of independence in 1995.

Jackson is now planning a country that could be an attraction for humanitarian workers.

“Verdis was an idea when I was about 14 years old, but he returned, and in fact, we actually created the state correctly after being 18 years old,” he said. “The reason is that it was only an idea that initially proposed many people I know who did a humanitarian job in Ukraine. And we wanted to do something that was a little bigger than, you know, just using a country.”

He added: “We want to be a neutral state. We want to be a hub for NGOs. We have a massive humanitarian environment. “

These high objectives can be tempered by the reality of neighboring countries which do not recognize the existence of Verdis and can be hostile to its potential citizens.

“In October 2023, we started a colony, and a few days later, the Croatian authorities quickly destroyed this colony,” said Jackson, noting that he had a permanent ban on Croatia and that the other settlers were prohibited for three months.

He added: “I went to Verdis a lot of times before the Croatian authorities invade verdi. We have done a lot of cadastral work, a lot of surveying. We have planted a flag for the first time earlier this year. ”

Jackson was at least partially inspired by Liberland, another pocket of land not claimed between Croatia and Serbia which, in 2015, was transformed into a microstate by Czech politician Vít Jedlička.

It is a symbolic state which offers virtual citizenship and an economy based on cryptocurrencies, but it was not recognized by any official country, and the Croatian authorities blocked physical access.

Jackson says that even if he shares certain principles with Liberland, he wants the free republic of Verdis to become a real regulation of which citizens are motivated by noble principles.

“We have the opportunity to test, for example, new governance systems,” he said. “We can allow citizens to have a little start. So people from all over the world want to try something new thoroughly. ”

For the moment, Verdis only exists on a website where people can ask for citizenship. According to Jackson, 15,000 people have applied so far, and 400 have already been returned to physical passports and identifiers. Legitimate or not, the Verdi documents were used to cross borders.

“There are cases of successful passages, but it is not something that we will promote unless this country officially recognizes our documents,” Glousse Jackson.

Jackson says he now lives in “Exile” in Dover, where he goes into socialities with friends and plays video games.

With his Minister of Internal Affairs and other civil servants, he plans to attend a demonstration before the Croatian Embassy in London, according to the official website of the Republic of Verdis. We will also hold a general meeting in a coffee or a local ad after the event, ”says the website.

“Although I am president of Verdis, I still live as any other 20 year old man,” said Jackson.