A photo of Liberland published on its official

Facebook

page.

A photo of Liberland published on its official Facebook page

The flag of Liberland. Photo published on Liberland's Facebook page

In mid-April a group of Czech citizens had the radical idea of proclaiming their own mini-state. Since then, thousands of people have asked to become citizens of the 'Free Republic of Liberland': a slither of land wedged between Croatia and Serbia some seven square kilometres in size. The rush to join the self-proclaimed micro-nation can be explained by its professed values of tolerance, but also a near-zero level of taxation.Located on the west bank of the River Danube, until now, Liberland had been nothing more than a 'terra nullius', a Latin term denoting a 'nobody's land' that doesn't belong to any state. The strip of land came about as the result of an ancient territorial dispute between Croatia and Serbia. Since the Yugoslavian Wars ended in the 1990s neither side has laid claim to it.In order to qualify as an internationally-recognized state, a newly-declared nation must meet several criteria set out by the 1933 Montevideo Convention: a defined territory, a permanent population, a functioning government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.Once it has fulfilled those conditions, Liberland could set itself the ambition of becoming the third biggest micro-state in the world, behind the Vatican and Monaco. Liberland's president Vít Jedlička believes such a scenario is possible because Liberland already has territory, people who want to live there, an elected head of state (Jedlička himself) and a dozen or so ambassadors.Liberland's sources of inspiration are 'Monaco, Lichtenstein or even Hong Kong', or, in other words, three fiscal paradises. Liberland's president, Jedlička, is a 31-year-old Czech politician from the Party of Free Citizens, a political formation that's both libertarian and eurosceptic.