"Da's een feit" - Gert Geens
Flemish History
The history of the Republiek Vlaanderen dates back to November the 27th, 1997 when Gert Geens stumbles upon the micronation of Nikhedonia and finds himself immediately attracted to micronationalism. After a short and unsuccessful journey to find a micronation he likes to participate in he declares the Flemish independence on November the 29th, 1997, and names himself president. In name a parliamentary republic this First Republic was more like a presidential regime due to the great legislative power the president could wield by issuing law-like decrees. In these first days of the First Republic Vlaanderen was not a pure micronation, the law stated that all official members of the public administration had to live within the territory of the Republic, as-such the macro-settlements of the citizens aspiring to be a part of the Flemish government had to be annexed. At the end of the year 1998 president Geens proposed to remove this 'territorial requirement' from the constitution and threatened to resign, as the proposal was defeated he called elections in december 1998. The territorial requirement was however removed from the constitution during the presidency of Jan van Eynde. During the presidency of Van Eynde the Republiek Vlaanderen opened it's first embassy, in Reunion.
In January 2002 founder Gert Geens left the First Republic saying that he feared the next administration would have to disband the republic, something he was not willing to participate in. The next chancellor, Erwin Van Horenbeeck tried to revive Vlaanderen and secretary of state Ken Avontst instigated the Open Vlaamse Conventie. This convention was given the task to advise the Flemish parliament about the future, the structure and the goals of the republic and began on September the 1st, 2002. Main point of discussion was the link between macronational Flanders and the republic, where some argued the Republiek Vlaanderen should be purely micronational. No consensus would be reached in this discussion during the First Republic. On April the 8th, 2003, the leader of the Flemish Defense Unit, Ben Veraart, tried to save the republic by starting a coupe d'etat. He would give up just three days later and marked the end of the First Republic.
The history of the Second Republic officially starts on October the 2nd, 2004 when Erwin Van Horenbeeck and Gert Geens meet in Gent but dates back to August that year when Erwin Van Horenbeeck and Wolfgang Thoma discuss the reestablishment of the Republiek Vlaanderen. They contact other former citizens of Vlaanderen and start a discussion over e-mail. In Gent Erwin Van Horenbeeck and Gert Geens sign the Interim-Constitution and thus officially reestablish Vlaanderen. Since the new constitution that dates back tot December the 20th, 2004, Vlaanderen is a pure micronational micronation. Still it is emotionally closely linked to macronational Flanders, which becomes clear when one follows the discussions on the Flemish messageboards where the history of macronational Flanders continues to be one of the most popular topics.
On November 11th 2007, yes a few weeks to early, six Flemish micronationalists came together in Antwerpen to celebrate 10 years of Vlaanderen.
