A person who declared himself president of his own country after claiming land within the Balkans has opened an embassy – on his local high street.
Daniel Jackson, 21, first thought up the thought of starting his own country with a gaggle 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 in all these land pockets – officially often called Pocket-3 on the map – because the Free Republic of Verdis.
Daniel, who has made himself president, has been working hard since to determine his country, recently opening two embassies – one in his hometown of Dover, Kent and one in Novi Sad, Serbia.
The 2 hubs, that are decorated with the Verdis flag, are officially ‘representative offices’ until the host countries accept Verdis as a nation.
For the moment they’re mostly used for printing ID cards and passports for those undergoing the 11-month e-residency programme to turn into official residents of the brand new nation.
Daniel said: ‘We have now opened two embassies. They’re still representative offices until the host countries recognise us. I spend quite a lot of time on the offices.
‘For the Serbian one we did a correct grand opening which was really good. We had some awesome people show up and we had champagne and every little thing. It was quite fun.
‘We have now got banners up and flags in each room. The Serbian one has a flag hanging off the balcony and it is correctly kitted out.’
The country’s total area is 0.501km2, around 125 acres, which might make it the second smallest country on this planet – just behind Vatican City.
Are you able to visit Verdis?
Verdis is just accessible via boat from Osijek, and attempts at selecting the land have thus far been unsuccessful – with their president now banned from Croatia.
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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.’
Nevertheless, headway has been made with Serbian officials, with Daniel being accepted for citizenship just last week.
He said: ‘We’re still thriving. We’re making quite a lot of progress, but we’re still blockaded. They haven’t backed down much, but they’re beginning to comment now.
‘We’re quite determined. Croatia doesn’t claim the land, so we’ve the fitting to it and we consider that we’ve a very good probability.
‘It’s a matter of when not if we get back on the land. Anything can occur.. We do acknowledge that we’re ambitious.’
Daniel, who identifies as each 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 residents, are English, Croatian, and Serbian with their currency being the Euro.
Verdis’ e-residency programme
Since he began the country, it has gained an enormous following on social media, with over 2,800 applicants currently within the e-residency programme.
Through this scheme and crowdfunding the president says they’ve managed to lift around £180,000 to go towards the founding of their country.
Daniel, who had to offer up his day job designing Roblox worlds to tackle Verdis full time, said: ‘Verdis was an idea I had once I was 14, it was only a little bit of an experiment at first with a couple of mates. We have now all dreamed of making something crazy.
‘To the naked eye it’s just quite a lot of forest, but while you realise that you just are in a rustic you have got created it’s magical.
‘We have now hundreds of e-residents and we’re shipping out a whole lot of ID cards every month. It is admittedly pushing forward quite well.
‘It is sort of busy. We have now employees and volunteers now. Verdis is full time for me now. I’m not in it for the cash, I only take enough to live. I’m not keen on profiting off of it.’
Daniel says young people particularly have been very supportive of Verdis, they usually 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 taking a look at opening a 3rd embassy – and is just finalising a location.
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