The Bureaucratic War on Keeping Warm
By Vít Jedlička, President of the Free Republic of Liberland
Imagine a continent blessed with enormous technological capabilities, yet increasingly struggling with something as basic as keeping its people warm.
Across Europe, governments have pursued policies restricting fossil fuels, phasing out nuclear power in some countries, and imposing environmental regulations on everything from hydroelectric projects to wood-burning stoves. Meanwhile, households and businesses struggle with high energy prices, and the growing reliance on wind and solar power raises difficult questions about what happens when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.
One might reasonably ask whether Europe's policymakers have lost sight of the ultimate purpose of energy policy: providing people with reliable, affordable energy.
Sometimes it feels less like progress and more like something dreamed up by an out-of-touch French aristocrat on the eve of the Revolution.
Here in Liberland, we have our own experience with the bureaucratic war on keeping warm.
On August 6, 2023, we opened our border and established a permanent settlement on our territory along the Danube. More than three years later, we are still here.
And so are the Croatian police.
Almost every week, officers enter our territory under the pretext of conducting what they call "tourist inspections." These visits frequently result in the seizure of heating equipment, mattresses, sleeping bags and other basic necessities. Our settlers are issued fines for camping, even though they are simply trying to live on the land they call home.
Apparently, keeping warm has become an offense.
The apparent objective is simple enough: make life so uncomfortable that the settlers eventually give up and leave. Take away their stoves, confiscate their sleeping bags, remove their shelters, and perhaps the approaching winter will accomplish what years of restrictions have failed to achieve.
But there is one problem with this strategy.
It isn't working.
Despite these repeated disruptions, Liberland continues to grow. Our settlers have endured floods, freezing winters, difficult living conditions and countless confrontations with the authorities. Each time, they have returned, rebuilt and carried on.
And right now, in the midst of all this, we are hosting a successful ten-day meditation retreat on Liberland territory.
Think about that for a moment.
While Croatian authorities devote their resources to inspecting tents and confiscating sleeping bags, our settlers and visitors are meditating, finding inner peace and enjoying the natural beauty of the Danube.
It is difficult to imagine a better illustration of the difference between two approaches to life.
One relies on regulations, inspections and coercion. The other relies on voluntary cooperation, personal responsibility and peaceful coexistence.
We do not object to legitimate environmental protection or reasonable security measures. But regulations should serve people, not become instruments for making ordinary life unnecessarily difficult.
There is something profoundly wrong when the machinery of government becomes more concerned with whether someone possesses a sleeping bag than with whether that person is living peacefully and harming nobody.
Liberland was founded on a simple principle: Live and Let Live.
That principle has guided us since 2015, and it continues to guide the remarkable people who have made their homes on our territory.
Our neighbors may confiscate our stoves. They may take our mattresses and sleeping bags. They may attempt to make every winter more difficult than the last.
But they cannot confiscate our determination, our inner fire or our spirit of freedom.
And that is why, after more than three years of continuous settlement, we are still here.
Live and let live!
Vít Jedlička
President of the Free Republic of Liberland