The territorial disputes of the 19th century may sound very old, but they continue to cloud relations between Spain and Portugal in 2024. At the door of the XXXV Spain-Portugal summit, Madrid and Lisbon saw how old an old (and thorny) diplomatic process is. The question of which of the two states belongs to the municipality of Olivenza, with 12,000 inhabitants, located on the Spanish side of the ‘Raya’, in Extremadura, just a few kilometers from the border.

To understand the peculiarity of Olivenza, it is first necessary to know its rich and ancient history, as well as Portugal’s no less complex political scene.

“Naturally Portuguese”The expression of disagreement was voiced a few days ago by the Portuguese Minister of National Defense, Nuno Melo, during his visit to Estremoz, in the Évora region of Portugal, where journalists asked him about a thorny issue that Melo had previously discussed: the sovereignty of the town of Olivenza, which has belonged to Spain for centuries but has been taken over by the neighboring country several times throughout history.

Melo’s answer resonated. In the background. And in forms that left little room for interpretation. “Olivenza is Portuguese and this is not a provocation,” he emphasized. In case there were any doubts about his position, the Portuguese leader insisted that Olivenza’s nationality would remain a current issue in 2024; he stressed that “it is a question of today, not of yesterday” and that an agreement was in place, for which the small Extremaduran town would have to be “surrendered” to Portugal.

And the sparks flewThe problem, as Melo later recalled, is that since last spring Melo has become much more than a prominent politician in Portugal, a member of the Assembly of the Republic and head of the CDS party: in April he became Minister of National Defense, which makes his words have a much greater impact.

It didn’t take long for his statements about the Extremaduran town to rekindle the old territorial dispute between Spain and Portugal, and of course to provoke a backlash – both among his colleagues in the Portuguese government and on the other side of the border, in Spanish territory. Melo tried to downplay his words without backtracking or backpedaling.

“A personal position”“This is an answer to a question and therefore it is unlikely that an agreement will be reached with the other members of the Government,” Melo said on Twitter through his account.

He was not the only one to influence this message. Shortly afterwards, Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel of the PSD was tasked with toning down the debate. “It is not an issue on the agenda,” the senior Portuguese official apologised in Lisbon, before confirming that Olivenza’s sovereignty would not be one of the issues discussed at the Iberian summit in October. “It is not on the agenda. It will not be on the agenda,” he stressed.

The topic is on the table. Whether he wanted to or not, despite Rangel’s words, the truth is that Melo snuck Olivenza’s sovereignty into the media discussion, if not the agenda of the Spanish-Portuguese meeting in October. Media from all over Spain and Portugal echoed the discussion, but so did media from other countries. Times or Anadolu Agency in Turkey.

Among those who have confronted the controversy in Portugal, PS secretary general Pedro Nuno Santos stands out, who considers Melo’s words to be “extremely serious” and that he interferes with Portuguese foreign policy. The mayor of Olivenza, Manuel José González Andrade, has also made his position clear. “Unacceptable statements, both in form and content,” he claimed: “Olivenza is the capital of Iberia, we are a link between both countries.”

Historical background, key. To understand the debate, one needs to know more than the political situation in Portugal, Melo’s ideology or the CDS-PP formation he leads. The backdrop is the complex history of Olivenza, a border town between Spain and Portugal. Its rich history is told in detail by both the city council and the Badajoz Provincial Council.

In short, its origins go back to the beginning of the 13th century, to Alfonso IX, ruler of León, but it was ceded decades later, in 1297, by King Ferdinand IV of Castile to King D. Dinis of Portugal. Alcañices. At the beginning of the 19th century, in 1801, within the framework of the Orange War and the Treaty of Badajoz of June 6, Manuel Godoy returned it to Spanish rule.

So where does the debate come from? From the 19th century. Extremaduran authorities themselves remember this: during the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) the victorious powers of Napoleon agreed to mediate the return of Olivenza to Portugal, but, as the Provincial Council of Badajoz recalls, “the negotiations did not take place.” “Given that the stipulated border of a treaty can only be modified by relying on another treaty of the same nature, the 1801 Treaty of Badajoz remains in its entirety the legal basis of Spanish sovereignty.”

“Olivenza is legally a Spanish possession by virtue of Article III of the Treaty of Badajoz of June 6, 1801, which, as the provincial government of Badajoz concluded, put an end to the so-called War of the Oranges. There is no legal basis establishing Spain’s obligation to return Olivenza to Portugal.”

From politics to the present day. This is the story. Daily life in Olivenza, told a few days ago Country In an article about the town, the situation is different. Relations between Portuguese and Spanish in the region are fluid, there are even neighbors who have dual citizenship and speak Portuguese despite living on the Spanish side.

In fact, the person who spoke from Olivenza after Melo’s words was the former president of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara: “These were discussions that could have existed years ago, now they do not make sense. The people of Olivenza feel very Spanish, very Extremaduran. Without giving up our Portuguese history”.

Image by Benjamin Smith (Flickr)

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