Republic of Flanders
Editor's Note: This article was written in 2004 or early 2005 for the MicroWiki and may be out of date. The Second Democratic Republic of Flanders (Tweede Democratische Republiek Vlaanderen in Dutch) is part of the [[Dutch micronational sector]]. Its name is usually abbreviated to Republic of Flanders, and perhaps even more often to VRV ('Virtuele Republiek Vlaanderen', or 'Virtual Republic of Flanders'). If one were to ignore the gap between April 2003 and October 2004, it is the oldest Dutch speaking micronation. If one doesn't, it's the youngest.
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History
The First Republic was founded on November 29th, 1997 by [[Gert Geens]]. Until the end of 2002 or beginning of 2003 (when it ceased to exist as a de facto entity), it was the only, or at least the main, Dutch speaking micronation. Two of the main political issues were the status of the Dutch language and the relationship with macronational issues. It also saw a gradual transfer of power from the president to the chancellor. Convention has it that April 11th, 2003 is the last day of the First Republic (that day, Vice-Chancellor Ken Avonts formally proposed to disestablish the Republic - a proposition which was ignored, probably because there were not sufficient active contributors anymore) The Second Republic was officially founded on October 2nd, 2004 after a meeting between former Chancellor Erwin Van Horenbeeck and former President Gert Geens. After long debates, a new constitution was approved by referendum in December. The first presidential and parliamentary elections were held from January 9th to 13th.
Politics
The new Constitution provides for the executive power to be vested President, who is both head of state as well as head of government. The President is directly elected every 13 months. The Government is appointed by the President. Most actions of the government can be vetoed by Parliament however. Parliament is elected every six months, and consists of 50 votes, devided according to the result of the elections. The current president is Evert De Smet, who leads a SCU-government. He's a member of the conservative SCU (lead by former president Geens), which has a narrow absolute majority of 26 votes in Parliament. Other parties represented in Parliament are: the social-democratic SP.ES (lead by Erwin Van Horenbeeck), the far left DEREV (lead by Spelev) and the liberal-reformist VD (lead by former President Burvenich).
Economy
During the First Republic, talks about establishing an economy failed to produce any results. However, in the beginning of February 2005, the Flemish Ducat was introduced as currency and a e-phpbank was established. E-phpbanking is an international banking system which was developed by Emery Frijters, Minister of Economy, and which is based upon Sander Dieleman's phpbanking system.
Demographics
As of February 9th, 2004, there are 32 citizens. There are two kinds of citizenship: Confirmed (62,5%) and Non-Confirmed (37,5%) Citizenship. Confirmed Citizenship can be obtained with the testimony of two other Confirmed Citizens. About 69% of the current citizens have no connection with the First Republic. ==List of heads of state and government== Presidents of the First Republic 29/11/97 - 14/12/98 Gert Geens 15/12/98 - 25/10/99 Jan Van Eynde 26/10/99 - 25/08/00 Gert Geens 26/08/00 - 10/02/01 Fran Cooman 14/02/01 - 06/05/02 Steven Burvenich 07/05/02 - 11/04/03 Kevin De Mulder Chancellors of the First Republic 04/12/97 - 10/02/98 Thomas Herbots 19/02/98 - 02/12/98 Anne Onraedt 03/12/98 - 14/12/98 Thomas Herbots 15/12/98 - 25/10/99 Gert Geens 26/10/99 - 15/09/00 Filip Van Buggenhout 16/09/00 - 10/02/01 Steven Burvenich 11/02/01 - 31/01/02 Gert Geens 01/02/02 - 11/04/03 Erwin Van Horenbeeck Temporary Head of State of the Second Republic 02/10/04 - 13/01/05 Erwin Van Horenbeeck President of the Second Republic 14/01/05 - Evert De Smet
