It still exercised significant self-rule, and its primary connection to the Norwegian king was through paying royal taxes.

TV entertainer Yngve Gamlin was "elected" president, and Jamtland was proclaimed a republic in its own right, within the Kingdom of Sweden.

It is largely seen as a humorous hoax, and actual support for an independent state among the local population is low.

The movement's main focus is to preserve and promote the Jamtlandic culture, language and way of life,[1] but not independence for the three "constituent republics".

Once a year he made a popular speech at the city festival Storsjöyran in Östersund where he agitated against and mocked the "Big-Swedes", the Swedish government and the European Union, in a simultaneously serious and joking manner.