Balkans: Czech man claims to establish 'new state'

Mr Jedlicka (left) says Liberland's finer details, including a constitution, will be sorted out in the near future

A Czech man claims to have established a new state on the west bank of the Danube, it's reported.

Vit Jedlicka, a member of the Eurosceptic, conservative Party of Free Citizens, has declared that a 7-sq-km (2.7-sq-mile) patch between Serbia and Croatia is now the sovereign state of Liberland. Mr Jedlicka, Liberland's self-proclaimed "president", says it sits on an area of no-man's land - or terra nullius - between the two countries which isn't claimed by either of them.

He has been doing the rounds in the Czech media, telling the Parlamentni Listy website that he's received support from "across the entire political spectrum" in his home country. So far almost none of the coverage has questioned whether Liberland is actually just a publicity stunt, although the Czech TN news website notes: "It's not entirely clear to what extent the activists are being serious, but they have turned up at the location of their 'state', where they have raised the flag."

As well as the flag, Liberland has a motto - "To live and let live" - and a website inviting people to apply for citizenship. Its founders say they want a country without "unnecessary restrictions and taxes", but make clear that communists, Nazis and other extremists need not apply. Mr Jedlicka says he has received hundreds of applications from people wanting citizenship, although currently the population stands at seven.

Liberland has been declared on a tiny spot of land between Croatia and Serbia

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