How a Swiss-Moroccan entrepreneur built a ‘kingdom’ out of scattered plots in Switzerland
LONDON: As self-proclaimed King of Switzerland and, to give his full titles, Emperor of the Lauwiner Empire, Grand Master of the Order of Merit, Admiral of the Empire Fleet and Field Marshal of the Empire Legion — to say nothing of his recent election to the municipal council of the Swiss city of Burgdorf — Swiss-Moroccan Jonas Lauwiner certainly looks the part.
In photographs posted on his official website, the 31-year-old former information technology project manager, whose father is Swiss and mother Moroccan, poses in a rather fetching fake military uniform more commonly seen in girl-meets-prince romantic comedies set in fictional European principalities.
Around his neck, his royal highness wears the self-awarded Lauwiner Empire Order of Merit, the highest of 29 honors available for the king to distribute to his subjects as he sees fit.
It is an unlikely rise for the son of a Moroccan gymnast from Khouribga, a city founded by the French about a century ago and otherwise known for the region’s phosphate reserves.
