When I visited the Free Republic of Liberland in April 2023, on its eighth anniversary, there was little to indicate that the tiny proto-nation—which had no permanent residents, barely any buildings, and a tendency to flood—was on track to fulfill its goal of becoming “the freest country on the planet.” But these days, Liberland has friends in high places.
Liberland was founded in 2015 by Vít Jedlička, a euro-skeptic politician from Czechia who had come to view European democracies as blighted by stringent regulation and overtaxation. In search of somewhere to start afresh, Jedlička came across a rare plot of land that seemed to belong to no country—a terra nullius, or no man’s land.
A border disagreement between Serbia and Croatia—a carryover from the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s—has created pockets of land west of the Danube that neither nation claims. On the largest plot, Jedlička planted a flag.
The Croatian government has since repeatedly blocked Liberland’s attempts to settle the territory, which it treats as disputed land. Jedlička, who serves as Liberland’s president, has been arrested by Croatian border police on multiple occasions. During my 2023 visit, I found myself participating in a slow-motion police chase while sailing down the Danube toward the territory; Croatian officers tailed our boat for almost its entire two-hour journey from Serbia, and patrolmen waited to intercept anybody who might try to make landfall.
“It is a fictitious project of a handful of adventurers,” the Croatian government has previously said of Liberland.
Two years later, the Liberland government thinks it may be nearing a breakthrough. With Chinese cryptocurrency billionaire Justin Sun as its new prime minister, Liberland is aiming to make strides in international diplomacy—particularly in the US—and finally settle the land it claims to own.
“We are taken more seriously when we have a person like Justin Sun on board,” claims Jedlička. “People understand that we are capable to actually uplift the whole region.”
The White House, the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, and Justin Sun did not respond to requests for comment.
Over the years, Liberland has been funded in large part by wealthy crypto donors, attracted by the prospect of a state built around the same libertarian principles on which crypto was founded. Liberland has itself released two crypto coins—one as a medium of exchange and the other for voting in elections—and developed its own national blockchain.
Sun was first elected as prime minister of Liberland in October. Since then, he has been reelected on a further three occasions, in votes held quarterly.
“Just as Vatican City represents a central spiritual authority for Catholics, Liberland will be the heart of the libertarian movement,” Sun wrote on X, after he was first elected. “Libertarians everywhere may have their own countries and nationalities, but Liberland will serve as their ideological homeland.”
For Liberland, Sun could prove to be an immensely useful political ally.
