Imagine that tomorrow you wake up, write four pages with solemn legal terminology, send them by certified mail to the Ministry of Culture, and proclaim yourself president of your own state. It sounds like a joke, but some people have done it. And not only that: there are people who have been doing it for 25 years with a coherence that is dizzying. Welcome to the world of the Wandering Republic Menda Lerenda, the most traditional, philosophical, and, depending on how you look at it, the most delirious micronation in recent Spanish history.
The Wandering Republic Menda Lerenda, known by its acronym REML, officially came into existence on April 1, 1999, a date that in itself invites distrust. Although the formal registration with the Ministry of Culture and Sport occurred in October of that same year, the idea had been brewing for months. Its premise is as simple as it is disconcerting: each person can be, in themselves, an independent sovereign state.
What exactly is the REML
To understand the Wandering Republic Menda Lerenda, one must park on a concept that, let's admit it, has crossed all our minds at some point in life: individual sovereignty. According to its founding document, the national territory of each Wandering Republic is the surface on which the sovereign has physical contact at any given moment. In other words, your feet are your border. Your body, your nation.
The name "menda lerenda" is not a coincidence. In popular Spanish slang, menda or menda lerenda is a colloquial way to refer to oneself, something like "yours truly" or "the one speaking." With that linguistic nod, the REML is already telling you from the name what it proposes: that the state is you, and no one else.
The Republic does not have a single founding sovereign, but expressly authorizes anyone to use the same name and proclaim their own independence. Thus, there is not just one REML, but as many as citizens decide to constitute themselves as a state. A country with a population of one, with a unanimous president and a fully functioning parliament: you, you, and you.
The passport that almost gets you out of a fine
The story of the REML could have remained a philosophical curiosity from the early 2000s internet if it weren't for the fact that, over the years, some of its sovereigns have tried to put the theory into practice with results ranging from the picturesque to the outright criminal.
The case that made headlines most strongly was in December 2023, when the Civil Guard stopped a car in Zaragoza for an illegal manoeuvre. Inside, they found marijuana, cash, and gold bars. And when they asked for documentation, the occupants pulled out their cards from the Wandering Republic Menda Lerenda, hoping that diplomatic immunity would cover their backs. It covered nothing. They ended up arrested for drug trafficking and, on top of that, for document forgery.
It was neither the first nor the last. Since 2018, the Civil Guard and National Police have recorded several similar cases: drivers with traffic violations, people with cannabis crops, and a few other more varied profiles who believed that their sovereign card shielded them from any law of the Spanish state. Spoiler: it does not.
What international law really says
Here it is worth taking a pause to avoid confusion. The REML argues its existence based on the Montevideo Convention of 1933, which establishes four requirements for a state to be recognised: permanent population, defined territory, effective government, and capacity to maintain international relations. Its promoters claim that they meet all of them. Legal experts, in general, disagree.
The problem of territory is the most evident: international law understands territory as a geographical area of land, not the physical space occupied by a human body. No matter how neatly the constitution of the REML is drafted, no court will recognise the sovereignty of your shoes over the ground they tread.
The Intellectual Property Registry, where the REML is indeed registered, does not grant any state capacity. It is, in essence, the protection of a creative work, just like a novel or a song is registered. That does not make it a valid passport, no matter how many stamps it has.
The interesting side of the phenomenon: individual sovereignty as an idea
Beyond the twisted uses that some have given it, the Wandering Republic Menda Lerenda has a dimension that deserves to be read with more generosity. There is something genuinely philosophical in the idea that each person is a state in themselves, with their own internal laws, their constitutive values, and their jurisdiction over their own life.
From the skin inwards, I am in charge. That phrase from the founding document has a power that goes far beyond the conceptual game. It is a declaration of personal autonomy, of individual responsibility, of refusal to delegate one's own existence to external structures. And in that, frankly, there is much more substance than in many conventional political manifestos.
The REML has also functioned as an interesting cultural artifact: it has generated communities on social media, inspired people who call themselves "sovereign," and sparked debates about individual freedom, international law, and the limits of the state. All of that with a name that sounds like a joke and costs less than 90 euros.
The card that makes you president
For those who want to take the plunge, the REML identification process includes a numbered card, a certificate with a secret key phrase to verify authenticity, and an exclusive pin. All for 87.65 euros, payable by card or Bizum. The REML claims that each identification is unique, transferable among collectors, and tends to appreciate over time, which also makes it an investment according to their terms.
What is clear is that, beyond the questionable legality and the cases that have ended up in the police station, the Wandering Republic Menda Lerenda is one of those phenomena that can only arise on the internet, in Spain, and with a good dose of Spanish ingenuity. A country without a map, without a fixed flag, and without an army, but with a constitution that you can modify whenever you want by unanimous consent of the government, which is yourself.
You will hardly surpass that in terms of direct democracy.
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