After weeks of trying to coordinate the interview with the President of Liberland I am now able to present to the readers of the Liberland Press part 1 of my interview with Vit Jedlicka.

LP: You founded Liberland in 2015 on terra nullius land amid the Croatia-Serbia border dispute—what sparked that bold act, and how has your background as a Czech politician and activist shaped your vision for a libertarian microstate?

Vit J: My journey was sparked by Frederic Bastiat and his book The Law. It start with bold call for action. The law aha perverted! Instead of protecting people’s property it was made to steal from people! This together with watching my my father’s construction company collapsing due to insane monetary policy of Czech central bank shortly after fall of communism got me to study monetary policy and later political science. My two thesis were Role of gold in monetary reserves in central banks and Prospects of Global Government.

LP: Liberland’s motto, “To live and let live,” draws from libertarian ideals. What personal experiences or frustrations with traditional governments led you to create a nation emphasizing minimal intervention and blockchain governance?

Vit J:

Spending 5% of GDP on defense, or significantly lowering VAT?

When I entered politics years ago and founded the civic association Reformy.cz, we fought for the Czech Republic to be more like Switzerland – with significantly lower taxes, sovereignty, and limited bureaucracy. In one debate, a socialist criticized me, saying that such a change was impossible because there weren’t enough Swiss people in the Czech Republic. I agreed with him and immediately started working on founding a new state. However, that doesn’t stop me from occasionally accepting invitations to political debates – like this Thursday on the show (Ne)Máte slovo ((Don’t) You Have a Word). It was an experience, but I didn’t get much of a chance to speak. Therefore, I will summarize the main ideas that mostly went unsaid.

1. Defense vs. Taxes: Switzerland, or Costa Rica?

At the NATO summit in The Hague in June 2025, member states – including the Czech Republic – committed to investing 5% of GDP annually in defense by 2035. This is a massive jump from the current, already increased 2%.

The Czech state collects the most taxes on VAT – the current rate of 21% represents 7.5% of GDP (610 billion CZK). The plan therefore means that two-thirds of the VAT revenue will go to defense. In other words:

• VAT could be 8.1% like in Switzerland, if we were like Costa Rica (no army, only police at 0.6–0.8% of GDP).
• Or 10%, if we wanted to be like Switzerland and spend only 1% of GDP on defense.
• By maintaining current defense spending, VAT of 13% would suffice.

Reducing the tax burden by 1% of GDP increases economic growth by approximately 0.5 percentage points. Thus, not increasing armament expenditures by 5% could bring an up to 2.5 percentage point growth impulse. People’s money would go to what they themselves consider important, instead of to weapons depots and overpriced technology.

2. Nuclear Threat: Tanks and Fighters Aren’t Enough

Russia is running out of steam in the conventional war in Ukraine. Ukraine remains a challenger only thanks to massive Western aid – for every tax dollar, another dollar of aid is added. It’s a stalemate from which Russia can only escape with unconventional weapons – Iskander missiles with nuclear warheads or Oreshnik hypersonic systems.

Russia’s nuclear doctrine (revised 2024) lowers the threshold for the use of tactical nuclear weapons, including a first strike if the sovereignty of Russia or its allies is threatened. The targets could be key European centers for arms production – including factories in the Czech Republic, Poland, or Germany.

The idea that NATO allies will protect us from this is illusory:

• Technically, it’s not possible.
• The chance that the US, France, or Britain would respond nuklearly is less than 10% – they would risk the destruction of their own metropolises.
• The more we invest in fighter jets and arms factories, the greater a magnet we are for a limited nuclear attack.

3. Orwell 1984: Who is the Real Enemy?

Many people have not read 1984 and do not understand that geopolitical conflicts primarily serve to distract from domestic politics.

Russia does not harm us by its existence in any way. It is fighting its war over Ukraine, where it wants to stop NATO expansion and force it into neutrality. I recommend the commentary of Jeffrey Sachs or an honest interview with Zelenskyy’s advisor before the war.

In contrast, the EU dictates our lives with hundreds of thousands of pages of regulations. According to European Commissioner Peter Mandelson (2004), this costs us 4% of GDP growth annually.

Four percent sounds low – but the exponential effect is devastating: in 20 years, we are half as poor. That’s as if the EU bombed half of the Czech Republic every 20 years – only it’s not visible at first glance. This is what Ms. Jílková didn’t let me say during the entire show.

The Czech Republic at a Crossroads

One path: greater involvement in the conflict with Russia, higher taxes, less prosperity – and paradoxically a higher risk of direct impact.

The second path: lower taxes, greater neutrality, greater safety. I am certain that a reduction of state expenditures by five percent of GDP combined with getting rid of the most harmful European regulations would launch us among the economic tigers of Europe. Do Czechs have enough courage for that? I hope Liberlandians do.

Let us hope that the new government throws the switch in the right direction. We in Liberland focus on conquering the world with ideas and not military force, which is why we were pleased that the first self-proclaimed general of our state became Javier Milei, who subsequently won the presidential elections and recently confirmed his victory in the parliamentary elections.

I thank everyone for reading Part 1 of my interview with