Asgardia: space nation elects British MPs

Three current and former British politicians have been elected as Members of Parliament for Asgardia, the first ever “space nation”.

Conservative MP Nigel Evans is joined by former Lib Dems Lembit Opik and Parmjit Singh Gill, along with eight other Britons in the new 147-seat parliament, which is tasked with representing the best interests of more than 200,000 Asgardian citizens from all over the world.

A pet project of Russian scientist and billionaire Igor Ashurbeyli, the Space Kingdom of Asgardia is the world’s first “virtual nation”, and has its very own constitution, flag, anthem, cryptocrureny and sovereign territory on the Asgardia-1 Satellite, currently in orbit around the Earth

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In his Asgardian election manifesto, Evans, who is the president of the parliamentary space committee, said that he would “be honoured to use [his] 30 years in professional politics to help Asgardia become a nation that lives up to the human potential which inspired it.”

He also committed to helping the Asgardian Parliament grow as “a political force for Asgardian legislation and policy-making.”

Former Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik cited his 30 years of political experience, including his work leading the UK Parliamentary campaign on the threat from near-earth objects - meteors that could collide with us - and expressed his ambition for Asgardia to inhabit space peacefully.

“As the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, the country is liberated to invest in a truly global space community,” he said. “Asgardia welcomes British citizens who share the dream of human opportunities in space for all countries, not just the privileged few who can afford a presence in space.”

The first meeting of Asgardia’s parliament due to take place later this month in Austria.

Ashurbeyli himself will be inaugurated as the first Head of Nation at the Hofburg Palace on 25 June, the space journal Room reported last month. About 130 members of the newly formed parliament will witness the “first commission of leadership for an off-planet nation”, it said.