Man claims land in Balkans and declares himself president

By Isobel Williams

A Brit who declared himself president of his own country after claiming land in the Balkans has opened an embassy - on his local high street.

Daniel Jackson, 21, first thought up the idea of starting his own country with a group of friends aged just 14.

The pals noticed that, following a border dispute, several patches of land along the Danube River were unclaimed by Croatia or Serbia.

So, on May 30, 2019, he declared one of these land pockets - officially known as Pocket-3 on the map - as the Free Republic of Verdis.

Daniel, who has made himself president, has been working hard since to establish his country, recently opening two embassies - one in his hometown of Dover, Kent and one in Novi Sad, Serbia.

The two hubs, which are decorated with the Verdis flag, are officially ‘representative offices’ until the host countries accept Verdis as a nation.

For the moment they are mostly used for printing ID cards and passports for those undergoing the 11-month e-residency programme to become official citizens of the new nation.

Daniel said: “We have opened two embassies. They are still representative offices until the host countries recognise us. I spend a lot of time at the office.

“For the Serbian one we did a proper grand opening which was really good. We had some awesome people show up and we had champagne and everything. It was quite fun.

“We have got banners up and flags in each room. The Serbian one has a flag hanging off the balcony and it is properly kitted out.”

The country’s total area is 0.501km2, around 125 acres, which would make it the second smallest country in the world - just behind Vatican City.

Verdis is only accessible via boat from Osijek, and attempts at settling on the land have so far been unsuccessful - with their president now banned from Croatia.

Daniel claims the Croatian authorities have also “installed cameras along the Verdisian coastline” to stop them accessing it from Serbia, making them a "government in exile."

However, headway has been made with Serbian officials, with Daniel being accepted for citizenship just last week.

He said: “We are still thriving. We are making a lot of progress, but we are still blockaded. They haven’t backed down much, but they are starting to comment now.

“We are quite determined. Croatia doesn’t claim the land, so we have the right to it and we believe that we have a good chance.

“It is a matter of when not if we get back on the land. Anything can happen. We do acknowledge that we are ambitious.”

Daniel, who identifies as both British and Australian, has been working hard to create passports, a flag, merchandise, a full cabinet, laws, and even a coat of arms.

The official languages of Verdis, which has 400 official citizens, are English, Croatian, and Serbian with their currency being the Euro.

Since he started the country, it has gained a huge following on social media, with over 2,800 applicants currently in the e-residency programme.

Through this scheme and crowdfunding the president says they have managed to raise around $180,000 to go towards the founding of their country.

Daniel, who had to give up his day job designing Roblox worlds to take on Verdis full time, said: “Verdis was an idea I had when I was 14, it was just a bit of an experiment at first with a few mates. We have all dreamed of creating something crazy.

“To the naked eye it is just a lot of forest, but when you realise that you are in a country you have created it is magical.

“We have thousands of e-residents and we are shipping out hundreds of ID cards every month. It is really pushing forward quite well.

“It is quite busy. We have employees and volunteers now. Verdis is full time for me now. I am not in it for the money, I only take enough to live. I am not keen on profiting off of it.”

Daniel says young people particularly have been very supportive of Verdis, and they have only received a small amount of hate from ultra-nationalist groups.

The president, who plans to step down once the country is up and running, is now looking at opening a third embassy - and is just finalising a location.