A few hours after the British government announced that it was giving up control of the Chagos Islands and handing sovereignty to Mauritius, Fabian Picardo appeared on the BBC. Gibraltar’s chief minister was “confident”, he said, that the case of the Indian Ocean archipelago set “absolutely no precedent whatsoever” for the UK’s sovereignty over Gibraltar.
Reaffirming the identity of this non-self-governing territory (as the UN defines it), under British rule since the 1713 treaty of Utrecht, is routine. Sometimes it occurs after seemingly trivial incidents. After Spain’s victory over England in the Euro championship in July, Álvaro Morata, the captain of the Spanish football team, briefly encouraged the crowd at a late-night party in Madrid to chant “Gibraltar is Spanish”. It was a joke, but Gibraltar formally complained to Uefa, which sanctioned Morata and his team-mate Rodrigo Hernández, or Rodri, who plays for Manchester City and had joined the chants on stage.
Conservatives and their allies in the UK are already appealing to imperial sentiment and raising concerns about the future status of Gibraltar after Keir Starmer’s Chagos “giveaway”. However, Gibraltar’s residents, workers and visitors face a more pressing issue than debates over colonialism or football chants: the fallout from Brexit.
It would be unfair to call it a problem of their own making, because 96% of voters in Gibraltar rejected Brexit in the 2016 referendum. Nevertheless, they are now experiencing its absurdities, which pose a threat to the livelihoods of the enclave’s population of 34,000 people and the 15,000 daily visitors who cross the land border from Spain, mostly for work.
Gibraltar was excluded from the terms of the UK-EU withdrawal agreement and it has been the subject of prolonged negotiations ever since. This limbo status has so far meant that many Brexit rules have not been enforced, and few restrictions have been imposed by either side. However, starting in November, new EU biometric control requirements for non-EU citizens will create a barrier at the border, and this could be just the beginning as more requirements kick in.
Despite endless talks between Spain, the UK and the European Commission, no agreement has been reached yet, though the general principle is that Gibraltar could join the EU’s passport-free Schengen area, which the UK never did as a member state. Current tensions revolve around the issue of Spanish police patrolling and conducting checks at Gibraltar’s airport and its port. For some in Britain, such a regime would symbolise that Gibraltar has become more Spanish or more European.
But beyond political posturing, the main concerns no longer seem to be about identity, particularly as a result of Brexit. In the UK, only a minority really care about whether Gibraltar remains British or even have an opinion about it, according to a 2023 poll. In Gibraltar, while citizens wish to maintain their British status, a primary concern now is freedom of movement. Spanish public opinion is not monitored regularly on the issue of Gibraltar, but a national 2018 poll indicated that only a minority were aware of the post-Brexit negotiations.
Last May, the then foreign secretary David Cameron appeared impatient as he repeated to his Tory colleagues in the Commons European scrutiny committee that Gibraltar’s priority in the negotiations was “a fluid border with Spain”. As with Northern Ireland, Conservatives gave little consideration to the unintended consequences of their Brexit crusade for the Rock.
In Spain’s public debate, the sovereignty of Gibraltar is mostly either ignored or treated as a joke or a cause identified with old-fashioned rightwingers. For those in the region, peaceful coexistence is what matters the most. In fact, among those who complained about footballers chanting “Gibraltar is Spanish” was an association of Spanish workers in Gibraltar. A spokesperson attributed the incident to beer-drinking and dismissed “Gibraltar, español” as an “old wives’ tale”. Some Spaniards in the area criticised the footballers’ “lack of respect”.
Spanish, right and far-right parties may occasionally protest against formalities perceived as a form of recognition of British sovereignty, but for Spain, Gibraltar is generally more a cause of regional tension because local authorities in Andalucía, the region surrounding Gibraltar, are not always aligned with the interests or priorities of the national government.
In June, a debate in a parliamentary committee instigated by the far-right party Vox to defend Spanish sovereignty over Gibraltar went nowhere, and even then any mention of Gibraltar was buried among other claims about “national unity” and separatist parties in Catalonia.
While the Spanish government has never formally recognised Gibraltar’s sovereignty, it is not pushing any change and is primarily concerned about illegal trafficking, policing and workers’ mobility.
Historical disputes may be difficult to resolve satisfactorily, but once again Brexit has proved to be a pointless burden, even more outdated and disconnected from reality than an 18th-century treaty.
María Ramírez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain
