The Portuguese Minister of National Defense, Nuno Melo, has demanded this Friday that Spain hand over the town of Olivenza in Badajoz, located near the border between the two countries, stressing that it is a Portuguese municipality “by treaty” and he believes that it is a “fair” right to demand this claim.
“Olivenza is Portuguese, naturally, and this is not a provocation,” she said in statements to the media from Estremoz, in the district of Évora, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa.
Panoramic view of the municipality of Olivenza, Badajoz
Third parties
The minister explained that according to the Treaty of Alcañices, the Portuguese State does not recognise Olivenza as Spanish territory. Nuno Melo recalled that he had already defended this issue when he was a member of the European Parliament, and that he is therefore not prepared to give up on this claim.
Olivenza is a municipality located on the border, which the Crown of Castile handed over to Portugal with the Treaty of Alcañices in 1297. However, it returned to Spanish sovereignty during the War of the Oranges, with the signing of the Treaty of Badajoz in 1801. However, in Portugal there is a persistent claim that it is Portuguese territory and Spain is failing to comply with what was subsequently established at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
“By treaty, Olivenza must be handed over to the Portuguese state,” insisted Melo, a member of the conservative government led by Luís Montenegro, who has been in power since April.
A square in Olivenza
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For his part, the leader of the Socialist Party, Pedro Nuno Santos, has rejected the minister’s statements, which he has described as “extremely serious” and with “an impact on foreign policy”, especially on diplomatic relations with Spain. Thus, he has demanded responsibility from the Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro.
Although Portugal’s traditional official position has been to defend its sovereignty over Olivenza, the issue has remained off the political agenda between Portugal and Spain in recent decades.
Border blurred decades ago
On this side of the border, the mayor of Olivenza, Manuel José González Andrade, has stated that the speeches that seek to “separate by means of borders, in the 21st century, were more than forgotten and belong to centuries past.”
“I am convinced that the minister has more urgent and important matters to deal with at the moment,” he added.
The mayor of Olivenza has stated that in this municipality we work “for what unites us, which is much more than what separates us in a border that has been blurred for decades.”
“Olivenza is fully satisfied and proud of its past and its history because it makes us unique and allows us to have a unique identity throughout the Iberian Peninsula,” he said.
“As he is also aware of his present and knows perfectly well what his future holds, to which this shared history must be added as a potential,” he said.
Back to the sovereignty of Olivenza
This claim is not new. It is something that is recurring, although spaced out over time, as are the voices that defend that this town, with some 12,000 inhabitants, should remain as it is, a nucleus of fused cultures, “mistura” as the Portuguese say, and a municipality with a long history of sovereignty.
In the mid-20th century in Olivenza the language heard in the streets was Portuguese, although this link of transmission that had been maintained for centuries has been broken with the death of the older generations, so that today more than 1,500 people from Olivenza speak Portuguese, mainly the elderly, but also the younger ones, who have benefited from the measures to promote the maintenance of knowledge of the Portuguese language in the municipality.
The municipality of Olivenza, in Badajoz
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Surnames such as Pinto-Amaya, Andrades, Piris, Silva and Sousa are common among the residents of Olivenza, whose streets, thanks to the initiative of the Alem Guadiana association, have recovered the double Spanish and Portuguese signage in the old town.
Despite this harmony, the statements of politicians and high-ranking officials in Spain and Portugal have always stirred her.
If we go back to 1999, the then Portuguese ambassador to Spain, Antonio Martíns da Cruz, said that the Portuguese Army’s claim to the border town of Olivenza “is an issue that has no diplomatic relevance,” after some voices in the Portuguese army pointed out that Spain should have returned that town.
Three years later (2002), the then social-democratic leader José Manuel Durao Barroso stated that the question of Olivenza’s sovereignty should not hinder the excellent relations between Spain and Portugal. “We must be objective, realistic and pragmatic. Today this question is not in any way a priority,” he said.
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However, that same year, the former colonel of the Portuguese Army General Staff, Américo José Guimaráes Fernandes, stated in Badajoz that Olivenza was “an integral part of Portuguese territory” although he qualified that the final word on this matter should be taken by the people of Olivenza.
However, the colonel and historian qualified that the current relations between both countries “are those of brothers” and pointed out that the influence of Portugal in the history of Spain has been as great as that of the Spanish country in the history of Portugal, while insisting that Portugal “was never a threat to the integrity of Spain.”
A year later, the issue became international when it was revealed that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had included the question of Olivenza’s sovereignty in its files on Portugal and Spain.
“This was said by the CIA,” said the mayor, “a very prestigious organization but, in my opinion, a bit rigorous and somewhat distracted, and which almost forced us to open the Fair in camouflage suits,” said Mayor Ramón Rocha at the opening of a bullfighting event.
On this same issue, the former Portuguese Foreign Minister Antonio Martins da Cruz said that the Olivenza issue is frozen, should not be reopened “and is not on the political agenda” with the neighbouring country.
The minister, in statements broadcast by the Portuguese media, rejected the possibility of undertaking any diplomatic measures and said that “we have to act cautiously with matters that could compromise relations with one of Portugal’s largest economic partners.”
“The problem of Olivenza -said the Portuguese minister- has been frozen since the Treaty of Vienna of 1815,” which Spain did not accept, and Martins da Cruz only admitted that the dispute could be resolved between both nations at another time.
In 2004, former Spanish ambassador Máximo Cajal presented his book ‘Ceuta and Melilla, Olivenza and Gibraltar. Where does Spain end?’, in which he raises the need for Spain to openly recognise the existence of a problem with Portugal due to Olivenza.
According to him, Olivenza is Spanish, “even if only for geographical reasons”, but he said that it would be good for Spain to become aware of this and look for a way to alleviate this discomfort, because “admitting the existence of the problem would denote a certain sensitivity”.
