Taxes Are 'Optional' and There Is No Military: Welcome to Liberland, Europe's Brand New Country!

If you purchased a map of Europe before April 13, it may already be out of date. This past Monday, Europe's newest country was unveiled: the Free Republic of Liberland.

Image source: Liberland.org

The tiny country sits on about seven square kilometers (less than 3 square miles) of land along the Danube River, between the official borders of Croatia and Serbia. According to Liberland's President Vit Jedlicka, the land was considered "terra nullis" or nobody's land.

Despite being just under three square miles in area, Liberland is not the smallest country on the planet. In fact, it is larger than the Vatican and Monaco.

According to a news release posted on the Liberland site, the founders are Czech citizens who formed something called a "Preparatory Committee," elected a president (Jedlicka) and decided to declare their new state and planted a flag.

President Jedlicka (second from right) and other Liberland founders at flag raising. Image source: Liberland.org

Those interested in becoming a citizen of the fledgling nation need to file an application. However, there is no official time frame attached to the process. According to the site, applications will be dealt with "in due time."

What does it take to qualify to be a Liberland-ian? According the web site, potential citizens must:

- have respect for other people and respect the opinions of others, regardless of their race, ethnicity, orientation, or religion

- have respect for private ownership which is untouchable

- do not have communist, nazi or other extremist past

- were not punished for past criminal offenses

If you meet all of above criteria and have an interest in joining Liberland, you will need to fill out the citizenship application and file it electronically. (There is no place to send "snail mail" in the new country.)

Liberland does have a Facebook page which has already gotten more than 28,000 "likes."

President Jedlicka also posted a photo with the Austria's Ambassador and claimed to be establishing "special political relations" with the country.

Liberland has open borders, a flag, a Twitter account and a Facebook page. It does not yet have a constitution (we're told it is being written), national anthem or official language. We also know that Liberland will not be printing currency, instead favoring cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

Friday afternoon, TheBlaze spoke directly with President Jedlicka. The 31-year-old leader shared a few updates to the story of this new country.

He pledged the country will never be in debt, something he said is being written into the Liberland constitution by the "130 lawyers working on it right now." He also invited all people to monitor the bank account of the country, posting a link to it online.

President Jedlicka also told TheBlaze there are currently more than 56,000 registered members of the Liberland website. Once the constitution is completed and citizenship applications are ready, Jedlicka says those members will receive an email offering them the opportunity to apply.

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Follow Mike Opelka (@Stuntbrain) on Twitter.