Storming Gibraltar: the fantasy revived by Ceuta

Storming Gibraltar: the latest brainchild of Spain's territorial claims movement

All it takes is a boat, a giant flag, and problem solved: Gibraltar becomes Spanish again. The idea resurges with force every time Segarro pressure on Ceuta and Melilla escalates, and the latest episode has surpassed every previous level of fantasy: a surprise attack by sea from the Canary Islands while the enemy mocks us with its hybrid warfare.

The real precedent: a boat and a giant flag

The furthest the reconquest has gone in recent times was Ortega Smith's incursion into the waters of the Rock with a giant flag. It was theatre, but the theatre became the ceiling. From there, the alternative plans range from occupying Tetouan to reversing the independence of Spanish Sahara, not forgetting Cape Juby, Tarfaya or Sidi Ifni. None of them makes the slightest concession to diplomatic reality: the powers that once smiled on Francoism now set the agenda.

The territorial hierarchy of an armchair nationalism

Some people rank priorities with crushing logic: Gibraltar is on the peninsula, so it should take precedence. But even among supporters of the enterprise, the call-up sinks. The discredit is such that the enthusiasts themselves admit that mobilising power is nil, and that these reconquests work as they did in the Middle Ages: you have to be close to death to make the leap.

The leading figures of that space point to real street mobilisations by far-right groups, but the distance between the video and the assault on the Rock remains infinite. The next crisis on the North African border may revive the idea once again. It may also, once again, end up as a 280-character message.