Mateo Mattiassen
Mateo Diez Mattiassen is a citizen and current President of the Republic of Flanders.
Batavian politics
He was born and raised in the Kingdom Batavia, where a was the founder of the pro-republic party Republikeinse Demokraten (Republican democrats). As main opposition leader, he served as president of the Lagerhuis (the Batavian parliament) from September 16, 2007 to January 6, 2008. He subsequently became Secretary of Economical and Financial Affairs in the third cabinet of Jeroen van Veen.
Flemish politics
Mattiassen adquired citizenship in the Republic of Flanders in October 2008. In time, he became more and more involved in Flanders, resulting in his loss of Batavian citizenship at the beginning of 2010. In 2008-2009, he ran for Parliament on several tickets; first as figurehead of De Nieuwe Aanpak (The New Approach), with an Obama-esque reform manifesto, and later as member of the SociaalDemokraten (Social Democrats) and the Sociaal-Liberale Demokraten (Social Liberal Democrats).
He served as Secretary of Finances and Integration in the fifth cabinet of Gert Geens and as Vice-President in the cabinet of Hieronymus Erasmus. With the resignation of Erasmus, he became the first Flemish President not to have a confirmed citizenship statute. Citizens of Flanders can choose between unconfirmed and confirmed citizenship statute. The latter recquires two other (already confirmed) citizens to authenticate the macronational credentials of the candidate. Some citizens opt to remain unconfirmed, as they see the confirmation procedure as a pervasion into their macronational privacy. Unconfirmed citizens have less votes in elections and cannot run for President.
On August 8, 2010 Mattiassen again became acting President via the vice-presidential 'loophole'. He replaced Petrus Fidelis, who was ousted as President by the Parliament.
Trivia
Mattiassen is the CEO of the Mattiassen Group, publisher of the news magazine Nieuw Republikeins Tijdschrift (NRT, New Republican Review). As of August 2010, nine editions of NRT have been published and sold throughout the Dutch Sector.
He is founder and Chancellor of the Nieuwe Universiteit (New University), a cross-national university within the Dutch Sector. He teaches Mayoan History and Electoral Systems.
He is related to Joxin Diez, former figurehead of the region of Mayo.
Links
- First issue of the NRT (English)
- New University (English)
- Blog of Mateo Mattiassen (English/Dutch)
