What seemed like just another eccentric character from social media has ended up putting a country’s authorities on alert for taking advantage of a legal loophole to become “king.” Jona Lauwiner (31) is a young technician who in 2019 proclaimed himself king of Switzerland and organized a coronation in a church for it. With cape, crown, and all.
After the coronation, which did not resonate in the media and the country considered it just an eccentricity, Lauwiner has moved on to acquiring about 148 plots of land without paying for them, thanks to an almost unknown legal loophole in the Swiss real estate system.
According to article 658 of the Swiss Civil Code, individuals are allowed to claim properties if there is no registered owner. The total of the plots amounts to more than 117,000 square meters. A micronation for his small reign.
“I am fair. I don’t close roads and I don’t charge much,” Lauwiner states in an interview with ‘The Times’, who rejects the name “self-proclaimed king” but presents himself on his website as the head of an “empire.”
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I know I am a symbolic king”
Jona Lauwiner
Self-proclaimed king of Switzerland
He has even created his own symbolism, an Order of Merit, and a ceremonial coin, as well as an Imperial Bank and an image to represent his monarchy in Switzerland.
Despite all this, Lauwiner assures that he does not seek to challenge the State or have real sovereignty. “I know I am a symbolic king,” he explains in the same interview.
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