Olive Press Gibraltar Issue 194

P LIVE RESS The O

HEALTH bosses in Gibraltar will no longer require people who catch COVID-19 to self-isolate at home.

FREEDOM!

RESIDENTS in Gibraltar will now be able to drive in Spain without a separate international licence and vice-versa.

It follows a Spanish Cabinet decision to recognise UK licences for those visiting Gibraltar’s neighbouring country.

Spanish drivers visiting Gibraltar will get the same equal treatment.

The deal gives a new six month period for Gibraltarians legally resident in Spain to exchange their licences without needing to take a theory or practical test.

Thousands of expat Brits had waited expectantly for this decision across Spain, often unable to use their vehicles without having to go through the arduous process of getting a new licence from scratch.

Gibraltarians, like Brits, who are resident in Spain will only need to get a medical test to check reactions and eyesight in order to get their Spanish licence.

The Spanish Cabinet decision allows the exchange of information between Gibraltar and Spain about vehicle ownership for road crimes.

THE Eastside Tunnel under the runway is due to finally open at the end of March, 15 years after the construction project started.

It will mean cars entering the British Overseas Territory will come into the city through Eastern Beach and Devil’s Tower Road.

Pedestrians and bicycles will continue to use the runway crossing.

The new 1.2 km dual carriageway will end the traffic jams created by landing planes during peak hours.

Visitors will now be greeted by the ever expanding Devil’s Tower Road building complex as they enter Gibraltar.

Years of legal wrangling with Spanish developer OHL delayed the tunnel being finished.

Its completion will allow the National Stadium to go ahead as planned.

But the stadium development will force the government to relocate the College of Further Education, knock down the old Bayside School and the old Blands Avis buildings.

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Director of Public Health Dr Helen Carter said it was now ‘the correct time’ to remove the legal requirement as infections were ‘mostly causing mild disease’ and immunity was high in the community. But she said it was her ‘strong advice’ people who catch the coronavirus isolate for at

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least five days and ‘limit social interactions’, especially with ‘vulnerable’ groups.

Dr Carter said there were ‘no new variants of concern globally’ at this time.

“I am satisfied that it is the correct time to introduce these changes to self-isolation rules,” she said.

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“The COVID-19 infections in our community are mostly causing mild disease and immunity is high because of our successful vaccine programme.”

Only people who work at or visit family or friends at the hospital or elderly people in their residential homes will need to take more care.

“We will continue to closely monitor these trends and reintroduce regulations if necessary,” Dr Carter added.

WHERE’S THE MONEY?

Liquidators probing whether Globix is ‘a fraud or Ponzi scheme’ while Olive Press names its beleaguered boss, believed to have fled to Barcelona

THE Gibraltar courts have stepped in to probe a suspect crypto trading platform amid allegations it was a Ponzi scheme.

It comes as a UK liquidator was brought in to close down Globix, which is suspected of defrauding hundreds of investors in Spain and Gibraltar out of as much as €70 million.

At an explosive investors meeting, hosted by former leader of the opposition Daniel Feetham KC this week, the finger was firmly pointed at Globix owner, Damian Carreras (pictured).

Gibraltarian Carreras, who ran his unregulated crypto company via Gibraltar and the British Virgin Islands, vanished last year with up to €70 million owed to investors.

As the Olive Press revealed a fortnight ago, the company crash was linked to the kidnapping of one of his partners, Russian Pavel Sidorov, in Alicante, last year.

London-based liquidator Begbies

EXCLUSIVE

By Walter Finch

Traynor is now trying to establish and locate the assets of Carreras’ company ‘Miracle World Ventures Limited’ and various linked businesses.

The insolvency team is trying to establish if Globix was a fraud, while primarily recovering any assets it can find.

Meeting

“Was Globix a scam? Good question,” insolvency expert Adrian Hyde, of Begbies, told dozens of investors gathered for the online meeting.

“We know it's been suggested it was a Ponzi scheme,” but he added it was ‘too early’ to answer the question. He also denied the liquidators were in any way connected to Carreras and were ‘working for’ the Gibraltar courts.

But Hyde made it clear that they would go after the assets and property of individuals who may have ‘received huge gifts from the company’, even if it meant bankrupting them first.

from furious investors in Gibraltar. Carreras, who speaks fluent Russian, studied Economics at Tambov University, in Russia, where he met his business partner Sidirov, with whom he set up Globix in 2021. He lists himself as a ‘crypto mining broker’ on his LinkedIn profile and claims to have worked in the energy sector, as well as for the Ministry of Defence.

When we finally tracked down Carreras for comment he told the Olive Press: “I have nothing to say to you.”

He added: “Basically someone is shit stirring and if you have any evidence send it to me.”

It was a kidnap attempt on Sidirov last June by angry investors frozen out of their funds that first alerted authorities that something was amiss with Globix.

In the kidnap, Sidirov was snatched with his girlfriend outside their El Campello villa, before they contacted police.

It was during the attack that Sidirov was able to send an estimated €40m to Ukraine in a crypto-wallet.

Third-party financial administrator European Financial Planning Group was brought in last June once Globix had run into trouble and stopped allowing creditors to withdraw their funds.

They announced in a letter to investors that they had agreed a plan with Sidirov to receive copies of the codes to the crypto wallets containing Globix assets.

being sent to Ukraine, the situation spiralled into chaos.

“We were hired to do a job, and we did a job,” EFPG majority shareholder Tom Fraser told the Olive Press.

“It’s in the hands of the liquidators now.”

A source in the Gibraltar business community said that the story had sent shockwaves around the peninsula since it was published by the Olive Press last week.

Discussion

“Everyone is talking about it and wondering who is involved and who set the company up,” said the source, who asked not to be named. “It’s a great story and will definitely gather heat.”

A statement issued by the liquidators regarding Miracle World Ventures Limited (In Liquidation) operating as ‘Globix or Globix Cash’ announced that Brian Robert Simpson, Adrian Hyde and Joanne Wild, of Begbies Traynor (the Liquidators), were appointed on March 10.

They also said they had implemented a dual control system over payments which would require two parties to sign off on outgoings.

But with the kidnap attempt on Sidirov and the crypto keys allegedly

It read: “Following their appointment, the Liquidators are making contact

The Olive Press can reveal that the 39-year-old CEO of Globix is currently hiding out in Barcelona after fleeing with all known creditors and investors/customers, who should expect to be contacted over the coming two days.

“In the meantime, if interested parties have any questions or matters that they wish to raise with the liquidators, they should contact: globixliquidationteam@btguk.com

Hot up top

THE Gibraltar fire service had to put out a fire at an Ocean Village 15th floor penthouse after a welding accident. Two people were treated by an ambulance crew.

Good buoy

A NEW marine buoy at the Seven Sisters Marine Conservation Zone will collect wave, wind, sea and barometric pressure data, surface and seabed temperature.

Bird’s eye

GIBRALTAR’S museum gave a webinar organised by the Swiss Ornithological Institute on the impact of climate and ecology on birds in the region.

Tower award

THE Naval Base’s Tower HQ refurbishment project, finished in 2022, has won the prestigious Heritage Award at the Ministry of Defence’s annual Sanctuary Awards.

A GIBRALTAR man who held a handsaw to a woman’s neck and threatened to cut her throat on Christmas Day has been jailed for seven months.

Stuart Harrison, 34, of Laguna Estate, pleaded guilty to Actual Bodily Harm and Threats to Kill at the Magistrates Court.

The attack occurred on Christmas Day last year when Harrison grabbed the

Saw moment Secret coke cache

woman by the neck in an argument. He then struck her on the face, cutting her lip. Not content with that, Harrison then held a handsaw that measured a foot and a half just an inch from her neck.

“I’m going to cut your throat,” he said.

DRUGS CENTRAL

SHOCKING figures released by the Spanish Interior Ministry for 2022 show how drug trafficking is running wild in the Campo de Gibraltar.

A staggering 273 tonnes of drugs were seized last year and almost 6,000 arrested or investigated for drug trafficking and smuggling across 4,698 police oper -

Latest stats paint picture of narcotics trafficking running wild across the border

By John Culatto

ations in all of Andalucia. The arrested narco traffickers made up 8% of the entire total arrested or investigated by the Spanish police

Choker locked up

A SWISS man resident in Gibraltar will spend 15 months in prison after he choked, kicked and spat at a woman during a series of violent attacks.

Ocean Village resident LV, 26, also sent abusive voice clips to the victim via a telephone messaging service.

The attacks took place from December 2022 to February 2023.

The court heard how LV grabbed the woman with both hands and tried to choke her during one of the assaults. His action left her feeling lightheaded and gave her red marks around her neck, police said.

Police officers arrested the Swiss national at the start of March and he has been in jail awaiting trial.

(74,626) for the territory. Fifteen percent of the drug trafficking total were nabbed in the region around Gibraltar, with hashish from Morocco being the main drug intercepted. Including cocaine and marijuana, a total of 74 tonnes were seized in Campo de Gibraltar - over a quarter of Andalucia’s total.

The area saw 858 operations with 68% aimed at drug trafficking and smuggling - over two a day, with the rest targeting money laundering and related crimes. The figures were released as part of the third Special Security Plan for the Campo de Gibraltar, which covers six provinces and was established in 2020 to tackle drug trafficking and

smuggling.

In June 2022, police made their biggest bust by smashing what was known as the ‘southern cartel’, a group that bribed port workers to bring in huge quantities of cocaine and hashish to the Algeciras port.

Whopping

They seized a whopping nine tonnes of cocaine in one swoop in April alone. Some 89 tonnes of hashish were also seized, along with 28 kilos of marijuana, and 61 people arrested.

The ministry claims the plan has successfully reduced the crime rate to 46.6 crimes per thousand inhabitants, 2.2 points below the national average.

CUSTOMS have discovered 55 kilos of cocaine hidden in the water intake compartment of a Norwegian cargo ship that was passing through Gibraltar.

A local diving company helped Gibraltar’s Customs officers extract the stash with a street value of around €3 million from beneath the hull of the ship. They found the two large packages in the ‘sea chest’ of the ‘Star Majesty’ after receiving intelligence about the drug smuggling attempt.

Customs officers then interviewed all members of the crew. But they gave them ‘no reason to believe that the crew was involved in this illicit enterprise or that the drugs were intended for Gibraltar,’ HM Customs said.

Examine

Royal Gibraltar Police sent their crime scene investigation unit to process and examine the seized cocaine.

Customs officers then released the ship to continue on its journey and continued their investigation.

The Customs chief said he was ‘extremely pleased’ with this latest operation.

“The procedures in place to curtail this sort of activity allow the department to punch above its own weight in fighting drug trafficking,” the statement said. It is the second such find this year in Gibraltar waters.

MUSIC legend Bob Dylan is bringing his 'Rough and Rowdy' tour to Spain this June with 12 concerts.

The veteran, who turns 82 in May, will perform in Sevilla, Alicante, Barcelona, Granada, Huesca, Logroño, Madrid and San Sebastian. His visit to Alicante is regarded as a major entertainment coup for the city, which is vying for international stars to come there, with another veteran - Sir Tom Jones - doing a show at the Plaza de Toros on August 1.

Dylan's Spanish dates are part of a world tour that started in November 2021 and is slated to finish next year.

ON TOP

CARLOS Alcaraz has regained his world number one tennis ranking after an easy straight sets win over Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the Masters 1000 event at Indian Wells.

The 19-year-old from El Palmar only needed 71 minutes to destroy Medvedev 6-3 6-2 to return to the top of the ATP rankings.

Novak Djokovic overhauled Alcaraz to take the top ranking in January after winning the Australian Open, which the young Spaniard had to miss due to a 10-week injury lay-off.

Indian Wells was the Murcia player’s third Masters 1000 tournament victory and he becomes only the second teenager to achieve that feat after Mallorca’s Rafa Nadal, who has now dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since 2005.

FA-KING IT

Lover of ex monarch slams reports that she is taking part in a Sky Documentary about the life of King Juan Carlos

By Simon Hunter

THE former lover of King Juan Carlos has blasted Spanish news reports that she will be in a documentary about the disgraced ex-monarch as ‘fake news’.

Vanitatis, the society page of online daily El Confidencial, ran a story claiming that Corinna Larsen, who still uses her former married name Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, would be appearing in a new production from Sky Documentaries.

What’s more, LOC, the gossip section of newspaper El Mundo, claimed that she wanted

Joining up

FUMING: Larsen has dismissed documentary claim

to present the documentary at the Cannes Film Festival, which will begin in May. However, a spokesperson for Larsen said: “Corinna has not initiated any documentary, is not narrating any documentary and she is not presenting anything at Cannes. This is fake news, again led by Vanitatis.” Sky has, however, announced that the four-part series will happen, and is due to arrive on Sky Documentaries and NOW later this year.

THE heir to the Spanish throne, Princess Leonor, is due to start military training in the autumn, following in the footsteps of her father, King Felipe VI. She will spend time in the three Spanish armed forces during her training.

Leonor, 17, is currently studying at the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales. But from the end of August she will start training in the regular army at the General Academy in Zaragoza.

The second year of her training will see her join the Marin Naval School in Pontevedra,before a third year at the General Air and Space Academy in San Javier, Murcia.

Cruz in control

SHE may have missed the Oscars red car pet, but Pe nelope Cruz stunned with her out fit in Madrid. She stole the show at a popup shop in support of the Lancome ‘ Vie Est Belle’ paign. The star lit up the event with her re nowned beauty and enthusiasm - and a stun ning black and pink ensemble by Alexan dre Vauth ier. Cruz has been a longtime am bassador for the brand, and has thrown her weight behind the cam paign, which celebrates ‘beauty and joy in life’.

Getting rough and rowdy Big backing

“Told from the perspective of his close friends and confidants, palace insiders, former intelligence officials and critics, the four-part documentary series sheds a new light on the former King’s personal life including affairs, allegations of corruption, and alleged abuse of power – leading up to and including the events and circumstances of his abdication in 2014,” read a statement from the broadcaster. Larsen was a regular fixture in the news headlines last year, not least thanks to a podcast in which she recounted her affair and subsequent break-up with Juan Carlos.

Revelations

Titled Corinna and the King, the eight-part series contained revelations, including how the king would appear with ‘bags full of cash’, how he was seeing someone else while she tended to her father on his deathbed, and details of the infamous elephant-hunting trip that started the chain of events leading to his 2014 abdication.

SPORTING superstars Rafa Nadal and Cristiano Ronaldo may be approaching the end of their playing days, but they are teaming up for a new career.

The Tatel restaurant chain, owned by investment company Mabel Capital in which Nadal and Ronaldo are partners in its hospitality division, is opening a new eatery in Valencia.

The chain currently has outlets in upmarket areas of Abu Dhabi, Ibiza, Madrid, Mexico City, Doha, Bahrain, Riyadh and Beverly Hills in Los Angeles.

The new Valencia restaurant will be located in the former Banco de Valencia building on Calle Pascual i Genis with the group promising it will be based on American 'speakeasys' of the 1920s.

Limiting plans

NEW planning guidance will force private developers to make sure their buildings ‘care for the public good’.

The new government policy paper will make sure all buildings are shorter than the current E1 tower on Devil’s Tower Road. They will need to have shops, spas, restaurants, cafes and cultural venues at street level and a carbon neutral footprint.

Tall buildings will continue to be banned in the town centre.

The new policy paper takes in most of the points of the 2009 Gibraltar Development Plan over tall buildings.

“Building heights should taper down from E1 at the tallest point, to Laguna Estate at the lowest, with a variety in architectural design and in height within that restriction,” the government said.

It tells developers they must make sure their buildings’ top floors are designed so they don’t overshadow the streets below.

“The Commission is guided to encourage the concept of a more scenic east-west pedestrian and cycling route to the north of Devil’s Tower Road,” the statement added.

EIGHT members of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment (RG) have spent five weeks in Gambia training over 60 of the West African country’s officers and soldiers. Accompanied by a Royal Marine Medic they based themselves at the British High Commission in Serrekunda, 10 km from Gambia’s capital Banjul. While there they focused their efforts on ‘Training the Trainers’ of the Gam-

Environmentalists slam nuclear submarine docking in Gib, despite US base down the coast

By John Culatto

The ongoing repairs on HMS Audacious, an Astute-class nuclear-powered submarine

Rock run

bian Armed Forces so they could then give the courses themselves to their own battalions. The RG’s trainers’ goal was to make sure GAF soldiers were ready to support any forthcoming UN mission and that they were combat ready.

Army mission SUB ROW

provoked the warning from Verdemar-Ecologistas en Acción, an NGO umbrella organisation made up of more than 300 environmental groups across the Campo de

Author callout

A NEW project to create an author directory will showcase the best writing talent the Rock has to offer. The Ministry of Culture set up the Gibraltar National Book Council (GNBC) earlier this month to promote local literature.

The author directory is one of a number of initiatives and projects to support the Rock’s authors on the quest for international recognition.

Organisers called out to Gibraltarian authors for biographies so they can put them up on the new GNBC website to be launched later this year.

Gibraltar.

“Gibraltar is putting all of Andalucia at nuclear risk by allowing the entry of submarines into the military base,” the group wrote on its Facebook page.

According to academics at the University of Cadiz, while Gibraltar has plans in place in the event of a nuclear emergency triggered by one of the submarines, no such plan exists on the Spanish side of the fence. Spain could face claims of hypocrisy. The Spanish government protested last April when the nuclear submarine USS Georgia chose to dock in the port of Gibraltar rather than the US/Spanish base at Rota in Cadiz which is just 141 kilometres away. It carries 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of over 2,000 kilometres.

Audacious has stopped off in Gibraltar after exercises in the Mediterranean, being joined by patrol vessels HMS Trent and HMS Forth, and survey ship HMS Scott.

Weapons

She is equipped with powerful weapon systems, which include Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAM) and Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes. Although there have been occasional incidents involving nuclear submarines over the years, these have never involved flaws with the reactors and there has never been a nuclear leak.

A BRITISH charity is planning to send 20 runners on a relay run up and down the Rock of Gibraltar for 12 hours to help retired military personnel.

Waterloo Uncovered will try to raise money to support military veterans in partnership with Gibraltar companies and locally-based British Forces personnel. The 20 runners will go from Jew’s Gate to O’Hara’s Battery during the course of the day on October 21, 2023. Last year’s endurance race raised £4,000 for the charity. The Commander of British Forces has already vowed to help in the effort.

Hearty welcome

A NEW 16-year private sector partnership will help Gibraltar take a ‘huge’ step towards better diagnosing and treating heart problems.

The Gibraltar Health Authority closed the deal with Royal Philips to acquire heart scanning, X-ray and surgery equipment and training within a year. More local patients will for the first time not need to go to the UK or Spain to get scanned.

The new equipment will treat blocked arteries and help replace heart valves to stop heart attacks.

THE arrival of a British nuclear submarine in Gibraltar put all of Andalucia at ‘risk of nuclear catastrophe’, according to a Spanish environmental group.

Police gettogether Commonly wealthy

POLICE from all over Andalucia came to Gibraltar for a friendly visit and to build bonds.

Eight directors of the International Police Association (IPA) were all smiles at the local IPA HQ during the visit.

The IPA directors came from cities including Cadiz, Marbella, Huelva, Cordoba and Sevilla. They toured the Upper Rock, the Great Siege Tunnels and saw views from Europa Point.

“They had a fantastic time,” IPA Gibraltar Section President PC Ben Bentley said.

“It’s all about strengthening bonds and friendships amongst police forces.”

Bentley met with Andalucian

IPA President Pablo Berbecho to ‘strengthen relationships and communications’ between all groups, the Royal Gibraltar Police said in a statement.

Wreck unloaded

Work to clear away shipwreck well on course as final stage approaches

WRECKAGE removers have taken out over half of the cargo of steel inside the stricken bulk carrier beached off Gibraltar’s coastline.

By March 16, the Gibraltar Port Authority reported that cranes had extracted more than 17,000 tonnes of cargo from the stricken ship.

The OS 35 has been lying in the shallows 700 metres from the iconic Catalan Bay since the end of August when it was forced aground after a collision.

Less than 16,000 tonnes of

By John Culatto

steel remain inside the cargo hold.

Cranes are now removing about 600 to 900 tonnes of cargo daily.

The next stage will be the break-up and removal of the ship’s hull.

A new barge that can sink itself to scoop up the hull and take it from the area is now heading to Gibraltar from Rotterdam. The Fjord will arrive at the end of March.

Horror crash

SUBMERGED: Steel is being salvaged

“I am pleased with the progress the salvage teams are making in terms of cargo removal from the OS35,”

THIS is the shocking moment a forklift had to lift up a bus in Gibraltar to free a woman trapped underneath it after she was run over.

The woman in her 60s was rushed to St Bernard’s Hospital for treatment for head and chest injuries, police reported.

The accident occurred near the traffic light on Devil’s Tower Road at the height of Bassadone Motors at around 3pm on Friday.

Royal Gibraltar Police, the fire brigade and ambulance arrived on the scene soon after.

A paramedic and care assistant then gave her first aid before the ambulance rushed her to the emergency clinic.

Police closed Devil’s Tower Road as they collected evidence.

952 147 834

Captain of the Port John Ghio said.

“The fact the semi-submersible Fjord is on its way to Gibraltar is also very positive.

“This puts us in a position to remove the wreckage as soon as we are physically able to do so without delays.”

Cash

Meanwhile, the original gash on the port side that led to the OS 35 sinking has now extended to the starboard side. The ship is now only being held together by the very bottom of the hull, known as the bilge keel.

GIBRALTAR celebrated Commonwealth Day on Monday to mark a year that saw it come closer to the community of former British nations after it left the European Union.

The Commonwealth flag flew proudly from a new eight metre pole at its namesake park as the British overseas territory marked the occasion.

Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Garcia said the Rock ‘has invested time and resources into developing business and social relationships with other member states’.

Peaceful

The theme for this year’s Commonwealth Day is ‘Forging a Sustainable and Peaceful Common Future’.

“Gibraltar continues to have an input when discussing the prevalent matters of climate change, growth, youth affairs, peace and prosperity with the entire Commonwealth Family of Nations,” Garcia said. Gibraltar has worked to expand its business ties with the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC).

It also sent young representatives to the Commonwealth Youth Forum in Rwanda and the Commonwealth Youth Parliament in Trinidad and Tobago.

Over 2.6 million people marked Commonwealth Day across the globe.

*Data extracted from process closure surveys after using our roadside assistance and breakdown services.

A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than two million people a month.

Voted top expat paper in Spain OPINION

Tunnelling times

THE announced opening of the airport tunnel at the end of the month will come as welcome news to Gibraltar commuters who for years were delayed by landing planes.

It has taken 15 years to complete, which a news outlet pointed out was longer than it took to build the Channel Tunnel.

The main reason for that was the legal issue with Spanish contractor OHL.

Court battles that lasted years paralysed its construction but it is now going to become a reality, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said recently.

What is clear is that it will be a real advertisement for what Gibraltar has to offer.

The first thing arriving cars will see will be the new blocks on Devil’s Tower Road and the Eastside reclamation.

The mix of private and government buildings will make for a stunning introduction to Gibraltar’s growing status as an investor’s dream at the entrance to the Mediterranean.

And while many continue to grumble about the ‘concrete jungle’ the British territory is becoming, it is an open secret that construction is one of the biggest motors of the economy.

New buildings bring in money which allows the government to build public housing too.

The tunnel will also allow the national stadium to go ahead, at the same time removing the old Bayside school behind it.

The long-awaited final piece of the jigsaw at the northern front will allow more projects to go ahead. What is still not so certain is the future of free passage through the border.

Talks on the EU treaty have still not concluded, an ever-more critical situation considering the lead of the Spanish conservative party in opinion polls. If Spain, the EU and UK do not close a deal soon, Gibraltar could have a very slow-moving frontier that would be a big hit for the British overseas territory and the surrounding area.

PUBLISHER / EDITOR

Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es

Dilip Kuner dilip@theolivepress.es

Anthony Piovesan anthony@theolivepress.es

Jo Chipchase jo@theolivepress.es

John Culatto

ADMIN Sandra Aviles Diaz (+34) 951 273 575 admin@ theolivepress.es

BILLIONAIRES’

THERE may be light at the end of the tunnel for long-suffering malagueños , whose team Malaga FC are four points adrift of safety in the Segunda Division B, and staring another relegation in the face.

It has been reported that the fabulously wealthy company Qatar Sports Investment, owner of big-spending Paris Saint-Germain, has started negotiations to buy the club.

Just last month, a Spanish judge ordered the seizure of club owner Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani's assets in Spain over a litany of unpaid debts.

They include his shares in Malaga FC and could lead to the forced sale of the club at a knockdown price – after all you’d hardly pay top dollar for an asset that appears to have been run into the ground. It would end the troubled tenure of Qatari royal family member Al-Thani,(pictured below) whose purchase of the Cos ta del Sol club in 2010 amid grand promises ushered in a new era of for eign ownership in Spanish football. Traditionally, Spanish clubs have been owned by local businessmen or the fans themselves, and the sys tem seemed to work well.

When Al-Thani bought Mal aga FC, La Liga was al ready top of UEFA’s com plex coefficient ranking system and Spanish clubs were regularly winning the Europa and Champions League. But it was

hoped that foreign owners might provide further financial firepower and push Spain to even greater heights. However, with English clubs dethroning Spanish clubs in UEFA’s coefficient in 2020, let’s see how successful this era has really been.

Banned

It was just 10 years ago in April that Malaga FC stormed to the Champions League quarter-finals, brushing shoulders with football royalty at Europe’s top table. They bested Italian titans AC Milan in the group

stage, and eased past Portuguese powerhouse Porto in the round of 16. They met their match against German heavyweights Borussia Dortmund in the next round, but it was a tight 3-2 affair. The 2012-13 season had Al-Thani looking like the saviour whose leadership would bring Malaga among La Liga’s second-tier heavyweights (at least equal to Sevilla and Valencia, if below Real and Barca). Unfortunately, financial difficulties including unpaid player wages and transfer fees soon followed on-pitch failure and relegation down,to the Segunda Division. Al-Thani’s ownership of the club came under investigation in 2018. Sufficient wrongdoing was found for the club to be sanctioned and banned from European competition for a season. After promising fans the world, and spending heavily on players in order

JOB DONE, AS OLIVE PRESS U-TURN CAMPAIGN FINALLY SEES SUCCESS

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Madrid correspondent Simon Hunter on the long road to a driving licence deal that left thousands of expats stranded

TO the relief of thousands of expats around Spain, the government has finally approved a deal on driving licence exchange with the UK.

The move brought an end to the more than 10 months of hell endured by foreign residents with UK licences, after they were banned from the roads on May 1 last year.

When it became clear there would be no more extensions and UK drivers resident here were really going to be banned, the shock, frustration and fear was palpable.

It was a situation that genuinely caught many by surprise, particularly given most had done everything within their power to avoid.

And it was a situation that everyone thought – or at least hoped – could only last a couple of weeks.

But in the end it took a shocking 10 months for the UK and Spain to reach a post-Brexit agreement on licence exchange, coupled with driver information related to traffic fines.

Ten long months, during which many vulnerable residents were unable to legally use their cars to get to work or attend hospital appointments, let alone go shopping or see friends.

After hearing many sad and desperate

stories, the Olive Press decided to launch a campaign to help them. Our U-Turn Campaign - which gave the victims a voice and pushed officials on both sides to find a solutioncan finally now be retired. Job done.

While rival newspapers ignored the victims' plight and some social media commentators even insisted they ‘deserved it’ for ignoring the warnings and trio of extension periods, we knew there were a myriad of other reasons.

In particular, many got hung out to dry by gestors (some of them bogus) who failed to do their job, while others were caught abroad or unable to act due to the strict pandemic restrictions.

Take David Dawson, who had moved to Spain in December 2020 and gave a lawyer instruction to apply for the exchange. He didn’t do so and David missed the deadline. “Our house is in an isolated location with no public transport of any kind,” he told the Olive Press. “It has caused countless nightmares.”

Meanwhile, an Olive Press employee found herself in a similar position - unable to drive to work or lead a normal dayto-day life, as were dozens of other Brits who got in touch with us.

There were a few reasons for the long delay, but the main sticking point was the UK wanting to keep the licence exchange and data access for traffic offences issues separate, whereas Spain wanted them together.

Despite story after story, many on our front page, we just couldn’t get answers. The main problem was communication and, as it often does in Spain, as summer arrived the information dried up, and despite numerous requests from our journalists no further explanation was forthcoming from either side – no one could

Malaga FC’s ownership nightmare might just be coming to an end, but how have other Spanish clubs fared under foreign owners?

Manilva, Sabinillas and Duquesa

ONE BIG FAMILY

You might start by gazing out at luscious yachts bobbing by the glitzy port, or the glistening sea along a peaceful beach trail.

And then minutes later you could find yourself among rolling green hills populated by luxury villas, or burgeoning vineyards around a white-

DRAW: Manilva’s St

view

washed village.

And on your journey you will meet a kaleidoscope of people from all walks of life, each with a story to tell.

Manilva officially has the highest percentage of Brits on the padron in Spain, with between a third and a quarter of the 16,000-strong municipality hailing from Blighty.

But it’s not just Brits - foreign, settled residents, many from northern European countries, make up 42% of Manilva’s population.

In spite of these high numbers, Manilva is not simply an expat colony - not at all.

The district has a strong and thriving Spanish culture and community that lives extremely harmoniously and very cordially with their foreign guests.

The locals and the foreigners mix and mingle in the same bars and restaurants and the pitter patter of conversation dances between English and

Spanish - and very often halting Spanglish.

“We come here for the sangria,” Londoner Richie tells the Olive Press in the shade of a Spanish bar near El Castillo, a tiny fishing settlement buzzing with Spaniards and foreigners.

“We go around to all the towns along the Costa del Sol,” his friend Siobhan adds. “We even go as far as Algeciras. I give the sangrias in each place a score out of ten.”

And how much did she give the sangria in El Castillo? “Oh, this is a nine,” she

declares - nowhere gets a ten. “I think it’s the cinnamon. They get it just right.”

El Castillo gets its name from the castle that guards its sea walls. Built in 1767 by engineer Miguel del Castillo and builder Jose Vargas, it was financed by Sevilla businessman Francisco Paulino.

The fortification was planned with war against the English in mind, with Gibraltar having fallen to the newly-formed United Kingdom just half a

Continues on overleaf

The booming coastal hotspot of Manilva has delights for all but retains its Spanish flavour, writes Walter Finch

A WHIRLWIND tour of Manilva will take you far and wide in just a few square kilometres.

Anne’s and the nearby

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From previous page

Wild west

century before.

In its more modern incarnation, as recently as the 1970s the monument was a residence divided into 16 homes for families housing 70 people.

Today it is a tourist attraction in an ideal location, but beware - it doesn’t open on weekends!

Just a short stroll along the beachfront from El Castillo, you will find a port unlike any other port on the Costa del Sol.

Puerto de la Duquesa is the only one to face out to sea. From each of the three edges you can gaze out into the Mediterranean. Duquesa is, without a doubt, the thriving coastal jewel in the Manilva crown, benefiting from tourism and buzzing with life.

For most of its history Manilva has been dependent on fishing and agriculture, especially its vineyards and celebrated sweet wines.

But over the last couple of decades, as this little township has welcomed an influx of tourists and development, it has still maintained a peaceful air.

Caesar

Though the Brits and the 180-odd other nationalities come from all walks of life and occupations (Ed: some have even set up a newspaper here) they all have something in common.

Like Manilva’s first health tourist, Julius Caesar, who visited the nearby Roman baths around 60BC, it seems that people come here for a temperate life beneath the jaw-dropping mountains, fed by the fruits of the sea.

Bob and Jen from Essex told the Olive Press over Belgian fries that they manage to come to Manilva once a month for as long as ten days a pop.

But they are content with splitting their time in this way, and are not tempted to fully retire to the sun just yet.

Bob, who works in the solar energy business, still has a few more panels to lay in

this booming industry before he’s ready to hang up his work belt. But it is partly due to content second-home expats such as Bob and Jen that the unpretentious Duquesa has undergone such a growth spurt in the last decade - and the expansion doesn’t look like slowing down anytime soon.

New cafes, bars and restaurants with cuisine from all over the world are springing up as a result of its growing tourism. Aside from the fantastic prices of homes in the area, the environment is distinctly low rise, largely green and everything is close to the sea. But when you do venture inland, you will head into wine-making territory.

Manilva town, a sleepy, glittering village nestled on a hilltop, is famous for its sweet wine. It, and the process of making it, is something indelibly imprinted on the locals. Even our taxi driver proselytised over the wonders of this wine - although he did advise us not to get through more than one bottle at a time.

When you arrive in the village, you will see that the central Plaza de la Vendimia (Wine harvest square) is adorned with a spectacular mural depicting workers in vineyards.

And in the nearby interpretation Centre, opened in 2010, you can do vocational courses in wine-making, aimed at inspiring

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the younger generations and training future professionals.

The locals like to boast that the moscatel de Alejandria is the best table grape in the whole of Spain and that it is specific to Manilva, whose slopes have been continuously planted with vineyards since 1501.

The basic wine made from this grape - the Manilva wine - is known as ‘vino mosto’, and in the olden days, almost the entire town earned a living from it.

The trucks would come from as far as Bilbao to take the grapes and whatever was left would be turned into wine.

Almost all of the locals that the Olive Press spoke to could remember back to those

BRINGING STABILITY TO MANILVA

IT is the first time in Manilva’s recent history that a mayor’s tenure has not come to a premature end.

And Mario Jimenez’s six-and-a-half years in charge is all the more impressive, given the recent turmoil of Brexit, two years of Covid and the complicated Ukraine crisis. With nine mayors in just over 20 years it is fair to say, continuity has been in short supply.

“What I have brought is stability and seeing projects that often get cancelled through to the end,” he explains.

“I have worked hard to forge a good working relationship with the Junta and Malaga Diputacion and I understand the needs of the large expat population,” he adds. With a new cycle lane and footpath currently being installed between Manilva and Sabinillas and the promenade on its final leg, he has certainly got something to be proud of.

“Yes, the paseo maritimo took a bit longer than planned but it makes the area so much better for locals and particularly tourists,” he insists.

He is also excited about building a new theatre next to the town’s Institute, installing a new swimming pool in Manilva and clearing up the area around the ancient Castillo. The father-of-two is also adamant that he does not want any more development along the town’s eight kilometres of coastline.

“I’m a big fan of green spaces and the fantastic expanse of coastline we have. We are working really hard not to over-develop the coast and have actually dropped density levels since I came to power.”

A former plumber, he went into politics two decades ago as a councillor of sport, youth and infrastructure and knows his town like the back of his hand.

Initially from the IU (United Left) party, he is particularly proud of Manilva’s history.

“The Romans had a key base in Manilva and they made

a lot of their celebrated fish paste Garum here, which was exported back to Rome.

“I am also fascinated by the Fortress of Los Castillejos de Alcorrín, an eighth century castle - and much older settlement - which was only discovered in 1989.” And a message to the huge number of foreigners who live here: “We are very proud that so many foreign residents have chosen Manilva as their home, in particular the British, who number nearly 4,000 on our official census.

“We hope to encourage more.”

Paseo Maritime San Luis de Sabinillas, Manilva

Mayor Mario Jimenez Rodriguez is proud of his achievements over the last six years

LOVELY: El Castillo and views to Casares

days.

Most of them had been living in Manilva village all their lives, they all knew each other, and they had done so since childhood.

“This place is one big family,” lifelong resident Eligio told us.

Eligio, who’s sun-beaten blue eyes twinkled as he regaled us with tales of Manilva over two cañitas that he generously bought for us, said he spent most of his free time in the village church. Nearby, a sign displayed the village motto: Very noble, very loyal. Then another man who had been listening in walked over to our table, put his hands on Eligio’s shoulders, and told us with all sincerity that our new friend embodied this motto.

It turned out that they had known each other since they were kneehigh, and Eligio had even worked for the man’s father.

you out to hike, cycle or horse-ride.

Another short walk and a hop and you are down in San Luis de Sabinillas, or just ‘Sabby’ as it is affectionately known to the expats. Like everywhere else on the coast, it too has flourished under tourism in the last decade. But there remains a tangible working atmosphere (it still has a small fishing fleet) and this is still a town where Spanish people enjoy their Spanish lives.

The blue flag beach stretches from Rio Manilva to Duquesa

Further along, and buried in Manilva’s historical heart a short walk from the centre, is St Anne’s church and adjoining cemetery, where Eligio liked to spend his time.

Who he was remembering he did not tell us. Turn a corner and there the 250-year-old church is; striking yet simplistic, bold yet unassuming. Sauntering through the maze of white houses with their terracotta roofs, every ‘Hola’ from passers-by strengthens the feeling that Manilva is very much Spanish still.

Up on the mountain it is removed from the wave of tourism lapping at the coast.

And then there are the postcard views from every direction, white houses spill down into vast vineyards with mountains out behind and the Costa del Sol to the front.

The Pedreta viewpoint delivers a view stretching from the white cluster that is the mountain-clinging Casares village to the coastal hubs of Estepona and Marbella below. A rich network of tracks is visible in between, inviting

A coastal stroll from Puerto Duquesa, Sabinillas has also become a popular destination for expats.

It is certainly a distinct community with a healthy mix of Spanish, expat English, German, as well as Moroccans and South Americans.

It is also a veritable hive of commerce. While it wins no beauty awards, there is a great range of supermarkets and shops in Sabinillas.

‘Wall Street’ is where traditionally all the banks and insurance companies centred and down on the beach there is a great range of bars and restaurants which stretch into the distance on either side.

Back on the blue flag beach, that stretches all the way from Rio Manilva to Puerto Duquesa, fishermen still launch their boats and are often met by waiting restaurateurs upon their return, eagerly awaiting the days catch.

Sabinillas effectively bridges the gap between the multi-cultural, tourism-driven hub of Puerto Duquesa and the withdrawn, tranquil, traditional village of Manilva.

With the right blend of coastal expansion and Spanish tradition, it is easy to see why Manilva is making a name for more than just its wine.

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Days of empire

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Once upon a time Manilva was among the richest and bestconnected places in the world

THE legacy of the Roman Empire permeates throughout the Iberian Peninsula, not least on the Costa de Sol which acted as the gateway to the Mediterranean.

The Romans’ love affair with the Costa del Sol was not hard to understand. Apart from the climate, bountiful fishing and rich pastureland, the area was a vital corridor to the Empire’s first line of defence.

Manilva and Sabanillas thrived as Roman towns, evidenced by the many ruins that you can still see here today, such as the Roman baths, believed to have been frequented by Julius Caesar's army and the Ciudad Romana de Lacipo, an ancient Roman outpost just north of Manilva.

First, a little history … Baetica, the Roman name for Andalucia, became one of the most dynamic and economically developed regions in the far-flung Roman Empire, rich in resources and modern in outlook, even welcoming liberated slaves. Before the legions arrived in the second century AD life was hard and simple, the land dotted with small and isolated agricultural settlements. However the development of a fish salting industry fuelled by increasing Roman presence on the Ibe-

Julius Caesar himself is said to have cured a skin complaint in the spring

rian Peninsula saw most of these segmented populations moving to the coast, settling in the town we now call San Luis de Sabinillas. At that time, salt curing was the best method for preserving fish for export by sea to Rome and other parts of the Empire. Manilva became known as Saltum and came under the administration of Conventus Gaditanus - a vast region stretching from modern-day Cadiz province and along the the entire Costa del Sol to Almeria.

Casares, under the Roman name of Lacipo, was a strategic gateway from the valley to the mountains of Cadiz and Malaga. Manilva and Casares boasted road links as good as EU fund-

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ing has provided today. They were connected by one of Baetica’s main thoroughfares to Carteia (currently San Roque where the Roman ruins of Carteia still partially survive), Corduva (now Cordoba) and the city of Baetica , together with Italica and Hispalis , both in the Sevilla region.

Some of that amazing infrastructure still survives. Roman remains can be found in Sabinillas, Haza del Casareño, Lagunetas, Manilva and Castillo de la Duquesa which showcases the remnants of a Roman Baths, town, curing factory and even a necropolis. Protected as an Asset of Cultural Interest, the ruins can be visited today and undoubtedly the most popular ‘asset’ is La Hedionda, the Roman baths built around a natural mineral spring where Julius Caesar himself is said to have cured a skin complaint. Still in working order today, the name means Stinky in Spanish and comes from the sulphurous waters which smell like rotten eggs. The good times ended when Baetica was invaded by Visigoths and the Roman’s Iberian empire fell around 5AD. People started to abandon the coastal settlements, returning inland in search of other ways to survive, perchance to dream of the glory that was once Rome.

TIMELINE OF MANILVA

● 6,000 BC - Neolithic farmers arrived in Manilva, leaving stone tools and pots in places like the Sierra de la Utrera caves, just north of Sabinillas.

● 1,500 BC - The Phoenician civilisation spread across the Mediterranean, leading to se- ttlements in Cadiz (meaning ‘fort’ in Phoenician) and the Castillejos de Alcorrín settle- ment in Manilva.

● 200 BC - The Romans in- vaded the Iberian peninsula in 206 BC, establishing a fi- shing village in Manilva. Ju- lius Caesar became governor of Southern Spain in 61 BC and is believed to have cured a skin disease in the Roman baths at Hedionda.

● 711 AD - The Moors inva- ded the Iberian peninsula and established the settle- ment of Martagina just south of La Chullera.

● 1400-1500 AD - Barbary pirate raids forced most of the population to flee into the hills for security. However, many still returned daily to fish.

● 1515-20 - Following the Re- conquista, the Duke of Arcos conceded land in present-day Manilva to the fortified town of Casares for growing gra- pevines.

● 1530 - The hilltop village of Manilva proper began to take shape thanks to its Duke, who parcelled off pieces of land to encourage people to settle there.

● 1722 - The Church of Santa Ana in Manilva village was destroyed by an earthquake.

● 1796 - Manilva gained in- dependence from Casares, when it was given a ‘royal privilege of the town’.

Pasaje Neruda, esquina Pío Baroja, edf. Don Manuel SABINILLAS - MANILVA - Málaga

BALLS UP

NET GAIN

THE Olive Press website has been in a continuous state of growth for the past sixteen years - and there’s no secret to our success. We are the only English-language paper dedicated solely to news, culture and travel about Spain… you won’t find stories about Australia and India or even the latest UK TV gossip, like you would in one of our ‘rivals’ as it chases hits. We hire NCTJtrained journalists who write their own exclusives and know how to source and deliver the most relevant and intriguing stories for expats.

to get into the Champions League, huge outlays ulti mately got the club into cat astrophic difficulties.

Why didn’t Al-Thani, a wealthy Qatari royal, just wave his hand to make the debts go away, as wealthy benefactors at PSG, Chelsea, Manchester City and New castle United have done?

This question takes us down a rabbit hole of wild conspiracy theories regarding

U-T URN N O !W

explain why it was taking so long.

For users of social media, the UK ambassador, Hugh Elliott, became a target for their ire.

In his regular video updates, he made clear that the embassy staff were reading all of the comments that victims were leaving for him. That must have been quite an experience, given the levels of frustration that people were expressing.

But thankfully, in the end, the situation has been resolved.

Now UK licence holders can get back behind the wheel. All they have to do is navigate the Spanish bureaucracy to complete the process. Let us hope this goes smoother than the negotiations did.

Al-Thani and his stewardship of Los Bomalagueños suspect that his ownership was merely an exercise in laundering large sums of money internationally at the expense of the clubs and fans.

Valencia

Malaga fans might find some common ground with the Valencianis, supporters of one of Spain’s traditionally more powerful clubs. They performed the rare feat of toppling Barca and Madrid to win La Liga in 2004, after reaching back-to-back Champions League finals in 2000 and 2001. But then Singaporean businessman Peter Lim (pictured above left) arrived in 2014, and it all went downhill.

Lim is accused of asset-stripping Valencia FC, selling star players Carlos Soler, Gonçalo Guedes and Ferran Torres, and appointing his pal, former Manchester United hero Gary Neville, to manage the club for an abysmal four months. Neville (who shares ownership of Salford FC in Manchester with Lim along with David Beckham and other famous United alumni) lost half of the 16 games he managed during a car crash tenure.

Lim has also refused to invest in the infrastructure or facilities of the club, and is currently burning through his 17th manager, club legend Ruben Barajas being the latest to sip from the poisoned chalice.

In fact, since Lim took charge, the club has reached the Champions League just once, in the 2017-18 season. Otherwise the trajectory has been borderline flatline. In response, fans of the club have been mobilising; abandoning the stadium on match day and taking to the streets to protest at the start of matches.

Not that Lim would notice: he hasn’t been at the Mestalla stadium in five years.

Models and money

Foreign ownership of Spain’s football clubs has not brought the riches and success seen in England and France, or, to a lesser extent, Italy.

That might be because the clubs with the greatest sporting and commercial potential are owned by their fans and not for sale.

Real Madrid and Barcelona, the true apex predators of European football over the past decade, are owned by their members, who vote to elect a president and board of directors.

This socios model, unique to Spain, treats clubs as a social organisation rather than a purely commercial enterprise.

Yet even this benign approach has run aground, with Barcelona struggling with a bloated wage bill and huge financial problems.

Real Madrid are faring better, but even they are struggling to compete with the financial firepower found in the Premier League.

The English league’s monetary muscle is based around highly lucrative television deals, and the wealth shared equally among the league’s 20 teams, whereas in Spain, the lion’s share of the television revenue is hoovered up by Real and Barca, leaving the rest of the league struggling.

Coupled with the genuine largesse of wealthy owners, English football clubs have blown their Spanish counterparts out of the transfer market water – and it is beginning to show in results. Already at a financial disadvantage, Spanish clubs find themselves attracting the wrong foreign investors who only make things worse.

Granada

Fans of Granada FC might beg to differ, of course: Chinese businessman Jiang Lizhang bought a controlling stake in 2016 through his sports investment company Desports Group.

Under Lizhang's ownership, Granada FC achieved promotion to La Liga in the 2018-2019 season, finishing as runners-up in the Segunda Division.

In their first season back in La Liga, they achieved an impressive seventh-place finish, qualifying for the Europa League for the first time in the club's history. They reached the quarters of that competition the following season.

Things are looking up for Granada FC, with Lizhang making substantial investments into the club and looking like a proper businessman.

In the end, as malagueños might excitedly agree, to compete with billionaires and sovereign wealth funds you need to be owned by one.

In the past few months we have helped to get the Irish government to demand the reopening of the sad Amy case and also broken scandals like the giant Otero group’s sudden suspicious collapse, leaving hundreds of mostly foreign buyers out of pocket.

Reporter Walter Finch has doggedly pursued the truth behind the construction firm that has projects in Malaga, Mallorca and Valencia, now suspended.

Most recently Finch, who we poached from the Daily Mail last year, has exposed a cryptocurrency ‘investment’ scandal involving Gibraltar’s Globix platform that has seen hundreds of people - mainly expats - lose huge sums of cash totalling up to $70 million, maybe much more.

Over the course of weeks we have built up an ongoing investigation into the shady firm with a number of Russian links before carefully breaking the news a fortnight ago. No surprise it has since gathered steam with the involvement of a big London-based liquidators and one of Gibraltar’s leading KCs and politicians stepping in and we continue to probe.

Stories such as these are the reason we exist. It is a core part of the Olive Press’ identity to uncover wrongdoing and warn expats of the pitfalls that await them if they are not careful.

For years we have supported the expat community by rooting out crooks and scammers and launching environmental campaigns.

That’s why Sky News and the BBC, the Daily Mail and the Sun - to name a few - all come to us frequently when they want a story investigated.

We are the only English website dedicated to Spanish news that you can trust.

Our growing readership numbers (we have 30,000 registered on the website alone) are the proof of the pudding - consumers value well written, relevant and trusted news and are willing to pay for it.

The top five most read stories on www.theolivepress.es in the past two weeks are:

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4- Spanish cuisine ranked third best in the world

5- Liverpool fans try to skip out on €2,200 bar bill in central Madrid

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FAN FAVOURITE: Jiang Lizhang has taken control of Granada

LADIES NOT WAITING

As International Women’s Day celebrations continue, Sorrel Downer takes a look at Spain’s top female chefs

OF all the very many things women do at least as well as men, most people would seem to agree standing in a kitchen and cooking stuff is among them.

Yet only one in 10 of all Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain has a female head chef. And in the Repsol Guide only three restaurants run by a woman have the maximum three Sols (suns) – out of 42.

The obvious conclusion is that women are too busy creating alta gastronomia to go around blowing their own trumpets.

While some of the most famous male chefs seem to be just as interested in self-publicity and burgeoning business empires as in their food, many a talented female pours all their creativity into the dishes they lovingly assemble.

To get to the top as a female chef in Spain takes a lot of talent and oomph. Here are the brightest stars in the gastronomic galaxy, and the rising stars with restaurants that every self-respecting gourmand should know.

Carme Ruscalleda, Moments, Barcelona, 1952

AS legend has it, the Catalan chef began selling a bit of home-cooking at the family charcutería and before you know it the shop had become Sant Pau, one of the best restaurants in Spain.

For a while Ruscalleda, mother of two, had three restaurants with seven Michelin stars between them.

Sant Pau closed in 2018, and these days, she just manages Moments (at the Mandarin Oriental) and Sant Pau Tokyo, advocates for healthier food options in hospitals and schools, writes foodie books and serves as an example of all that’s possible.

Susi Díaz, La Finca, Alicante, 1956

SHE spent seven years training in Switzerland and working in top restaurants across Europe (including London’s Le Gavroche and elBulli) before coming home to work with her Dad. It was a risk: Juan Mari Arzak is one of the biggest names in Spanish gastronomy. But talent, technical skill and her own distinct approach have seen her scoop up awards in her own right –Best Female Chef in the World (2012) among them. She is the only woman running a three-Michelin star restau-

KNOWN as the ‘volcanic chef’ not for a Ramsay style temper but for being part of the ‘volcanic cuisine movement’ dedicated to using local produce, most ingredients in the minimalist dishes she creates with precise and scientific skill come from her own orchard, veg plots and chickens in Olot.

Home-grown and KM 0 also applies to her team: Daughters Martina (ex of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, New York) and Carlota (ex of El Celler de Can Roca) now work alongside her, while her third Clara works front of house.

MICHELIN STARS

RISING STARS

Vicky Sevilla, Arrels, Valencia,1992

IN 2021, the 29-year-old from Sevilla became the youngest female chef in Spain to get a Michelin star.

Just four years earlier, she’d been begging banks to loan her the money to start a restaurant. Despite her grit and determination, she drifted into chef-dom by accident when, as a 17-yearold, instead of flying home from a holiday in Menorca, she stayed and got a job in a restaurant. She later worked with both Susi Diaz and Begoña Rodrigo (who she counts as mentors).

MICHELIN STARS

REPSOL SOLS

IN Netflix movies, the pressures of running a restaurant break up marriages, but Diaz jokes that she opened this gem of a restaurant in Elche in 1984 to save hers because, with a husband also working in hospitality, without a joint project they’d never see each other.

REPSOL SOLS

rant in Spain, albeit with Juan Mari alongside. ‘He’s my maestro,’ she says. ‘I love it!’

VANGUARD technique, a celebration of the local gambas, and playful tasting menu have won her multiple awards at this top marina-front spot. San Roman also has the very important role of president of the Asociación de Mujeres en Gastronomia (MEG) pushing for visibility and equality.

Self-taught, she’s known for fish and seafood dishes using citrus and edible flowers that are as exquisitely beautiful as they are delicious. Author of a popular cookbook (Sentidos) familiar to Spanish TV audiences as a judge on Top Chef, Diaz is also an ambassador for the Marine Stewardship Council.

REPSOL SOLS MICHELIN STARS

INSPIRATION struck while helping her mother-in-law in the family tapas bar in La Nucia.

After studying the culinary arts in Benidorm, absorbing the molecular gastronomy teachings of Ferran Adria, and working as an intern at El Celler de Can Roca, she diplomatically transformed the traditional venue into a sophisticated Michelin restaurant voted fifth best in the world by TripAdvisor punters, and winning the title of best chef in the province of Alicante along the way.

MICHELIN STARS

REPSOL SOLS

Here are some of the future female stars breaking into the cooking scene

Rocio Parra, La Parra, Salamanca, 1982

IT would be wrong to call her the Pork Queen, but she loves the stuff: 13 of the 25 courses on one of her tasting menus feature it in some form, from tartar of salchichon to an Iberian pate éclair.

REPSOL

The Madrid-born chef trained under Michelin-star chef Paco Roncero and also worked with Yolanda Leon before moving to Salamanca for love. The amount of skill and imagination, artistry and sheer graft that goes into the two lengthy, seasonal tasting menus on offer, defies belief.

It won her a Michelin star five years after opening, in 2020 – she was the only female chef in Spain to get a first star.

Rakel Cernicharo, Karak, Valencia, 1985

CERNICHARO creates dining experiences: Her restaurant is a world of its own, where design, art and moody lighting complement the food.

The tasting menus are journeys through the senses and based on themes (currently ‘fire’, ‘smoke’ or ‘embers’) and truly unique. Karak has been going for ten years, though in its current central location (at Hotel One Shot Mercat 09) for just five. Another Top Chef winner (2017), she finally got on the Repsol radar last year.

Alba Esteve Ruiz, Restaurante Alba, Alicante, 1989

SUCH was the impression she made when working in Rome in 2018, she won Italy’s best young female chef award.

Now home and running her own restaurant, her elegant and aesthetically pleasing dishes are, writes one critic, impregnated with a touch of Italian. Alba (another graduate of the hit machine that is Joan Roca’s El Celler de Can Roca) is the only woman on the shortlist for Spain’s best young chef award (results due imminently).

Incidentally, Joan Roca has received Michelin’s Chef-Mentor 2023 award for services rendered.

REPSOL SOLS

REPSOL SOLS

MICHELIN STARS

Fina Puigdevall, Les Cols, Girona, 1963

Cristina Figueira, El Xato, Alicante, 1974

Elena Arzak, Arzak, San Sebastian,

Maria Jose San Roman, Monastrell, Alicante, 1955

SOLS

MICHELIN STARS

REPSOL SOLS

MICHELIN STARS

REPSOL SOLS

Violin concert

A WORLD class violin virtuoso and pianist will perform classical works by Brahms, Ravel and Kreisler at the Convent Ballroom in Gibraltar at the end of March.

Violinist Sergei Krylov, on a return visit to the Rock, and pianist Michael Lifits will take the stage for the recital of classical music.

Legendary composer Mstislav Rostropovich once described Krylov as one of the top five contemporary violinists.

The Gibraltar Philharmonic Society will put on the event at 8 pm on March 28.

“We are delighted to welcome violin virtuoso Sergej Krylov back to Gibraltar, accompanied by highly acclaimed pianist Michail Lifits,” Ernest Gomez MBE, Chairman of the Gibraltar Philharmonic Society said.

“We look forward to an inspiring evening’s entertainment in the company of our sponsors and supporters.”

THE Gibraltar Sea Scouts bagpipe band made a stunning surprise appearance at a Malaga concert by legendary violinist Andre Rieu. Halfway through the show, the band marched into the Palacio de los Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena, aweing the 10,000 people watching the show.

The band then joined the 60 piece Johann Strauss orchestra on stage and performed ‘Highland Cathedral' before marching off. They returned at the end for an encore with their own version of Amazing Grace.

Pipe Major Tarik El-Yabani said he

Pipin’ hot

was ‘incredibly proud and thankful’ that his pipers and drummers could perform at this level.

“This is undoubtedly our highest profile engagement to date,” said El-Yabani.

“It has not been easy giving up more of their free time during the week and even the weekend to rehearse for this, but it was all worth it for this exhilarating experience.”

And the Dutch violinist was so impressed, he even asked the band to join

PUT PEN TO PAPER

HAVE you always wanted to write but never got round to it? Always had a story but didn’t know where to start?

Maybe you’re a frustrated poet or you’ve written business stuff all your life and want to get creative?

Well an intensive creative writing course in the heart of rugged Ronda could be the answer.

OP QUICK CROSSWORD

Get the creative juices flowing in the heart of Andalucia

Based at charming Casa del Rio, a boutique hotel set in rolling mountains, the course by Chalk the Sun, in May, still has a few places.

Led by Jo Hepplewhite, the founder of the nearby Gaucin Writers group,

Across

5 Herbal Italian bread (8)

7 Agitate (4)

8 Offensive (13)

9 Possessed (5)

11 Direct hit is source of pride (6)

13 World’s largest economy (1,1,1)

14 Fiddle (6)

15 Invest defensively (5)

17 Unpredictable (13)

20 Price paid (4)

21 Wine and soda water (8)

Down

1 Leave-taking (8)

2 Finely honed (5)

3 Largest Balearic island (7)

4 Submissive (8)

6 Globe (3)

7 The Red or the Med (3)

10 Super-intense (5-3)

12 Tiny tree chopped up for ever (8)

13 Disrobe (7)

16 Like a brainiac (5)

18 Favourite (3)

19 Type of beer (3)

there will be creative inspiration aplenty and dozens of helpful tips and guidance. Jo has taught at Westminster and Middlesex universities, at the University for the Creative Arts in Kent and in care homes and prisons.

With a master’s degree in creative writing she likes to combine her knowledge of language as a communicative tool with her belief that everyone can benefit by exploring human experience through the practice of writing poems and stories.

“Genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration,” she insists, citing an Edison adage.

You basically need to acquire the requisite skills and techniques via the range of engaging and instructive exercises and activities that are built into the course.

As well as detailed instruction the course offers time for individual work and exploration in the tranquil and picturesque surroundings.

With a luxurious room, breakfast and dinner provided, stimulating company, group work and at least one individual tutorial, the course allows writers to focus entirely on writing, and to emerge at the end of the week with a project well on the road to realisation.

URBAN GRIT

A TASTE of New York as it was can be sampled in Malaga.

All solutions are on page 10

The Museo Carmen Thyssen is putting on an exhibition of urban photography and casts a spotlight on the 1940s street life in the Big Apple. This show brings together 20 images taken by two women photographers in New York in the 1940s. The urban photography exhibition, 'Street Life. Lisette Model and Helen Levitt in New York ' opens the gallery’s new ArteSonado space and will be on display until June 11.

AT least one artist from Gibraltar will get the chance to showcase their work at the Guernsey Island Games in July.

Organisers of the sporting event to be held from 8-14 July 2023 at the Channel Island off the coast of France are trying to engage in ‘cultural diplomacy’ through the outreach. They are inviting photographers, film-makers, animators, digital artists, painters and sculptors to put forward their work to be displayed.

“Artists are asked to explore the significance of their home: a dramatic viewpoint, an iconic landmark, emotive building or an interpretation of a historic moment,” Guernsey 23 organisers said.

“Through the projects we will be building a collaborative insight across our Islands, developing cultural diplomacy and creating a cultural legacy of our creative communities.”

Sporting art Rewarding art

LOCAL artists could take home £3,000 if they can win Gibraltar’s annual Spring Visual Arts Competition to be held in May. The Ministry of Culture will provide the top overall prize for Gibraltarians over 16-years-old in one of the most anticipated dates of the artistic calendar. Works from the painting, sculpture, photography and video categories will be on show at the Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery in Casemates Square from May 17-27.

The Ministry of Culture will also give four prizes of £750 each for these four different categories.

Naomi Martinez won last year’s competition with a video piece called ‘El Viento Del Poniente Sopla’. She also took the photography award for another work.

Artists can submit their works at the gallery from May 3-5. But video entries need to be sent by email from April 12-14.

GIBRALTARIAN culture will be thrown into the spotlight with the publication of Gibraltarians and their Language: twenty-one linguistic biographies.

The book forms part of a collaboration between the University of Vigo and the University of the Balearic Islands as well as Gibraltarian author and book council member M. G. Sanchez.

The study will explore Gibraltarian attitudes to language through a series of ‘linguistic biographies’ which will contain a narrative of each person’s relationship to language.

The biographies will delve into whether English, Spanish or Llanito was spoken at home, with friends in school and how ideas around language developed in their formative years.

The Minister for Culture has hailed the project ‘an exciting, major development in the study of our language, and so relevant to who we are.’

him and his famed Johann Strauss Orchestra for the other stops in Barcelona and Madrid.

WHERE DID COVID GO?

March

By Jo Chipchase

WHO could forget how strange our lives became on 14 March 2020, thanks to the new virus with the spike protein?

We were told it hailed from the Wuhan wet market in China, and constant news coverage whipped up public fears.

With little warning, we were instructed to stay at home (quédate a casa) and were only allowed outside for ‘essential supplies’, animal care, or to empty our bins, all to be undertaken in a mask.

The national state of alarm only ended on June 9, 2021.

After that, regional goverments could decide rules – such as, residents must remain within their own province or municipality and not gather in groups.

Despite the strict lockdown, Spain had 255 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, an unenviable rate in Europe. Afterwards, we eventually ‘de-escalated’ out of Covid restrictions, returning to a full life with family, friends, and fiestas in 2022.

Three years on, what (if anything) have we learned from our collective experience? And, with many people currently sick with coughs and fevers, has Covid really gone – and if so, where?

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE KRAKEN VARIANT?

In January, when China abandoned its ‘zero Covid’ policy, and opened its borders, the world feared that new subvariants would fly out.

A much hyped subvariant is Kraken (XBB.1.5). Derived from Omicron and related to the XBB strain, Kraken appeared last October. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been watching it as a ‘variant of concern’. According to a December study in

Cell magazine, it’s great at evading immune defences and vaccines. So where is it?

Although Kraken is already supposed to be in 29 countries, and already accounts for 40% of cases in Spain (of those that are tested and reported), who knows anyone who has been diagnosed with this subvariant? Answers on a postcard.

DO TESTS STILL WORK?

Despite everyone seeming to be sick with fevers, persistent coughs, and weakness over the last few months, reports of positive Covid tests are anecdotally scarce.

Are the home antigen tests doing their job? This is debatable. The advice from the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) is ‘if you think you are infected with Covid but test negative, test again in 48hrs . . . if you’re still negative, take another in two days’.

A 2022 study showed that home antigen tests were only 60% accurate on the first day of a person’s symptomatic infection. For asymptomatic infections it dropped to 12%. A second test improved accuracy to 92% and 51% respectively. The need for ‘serial

testing’ is hardly inspiring.

Lucy Hayes Logan of Lanjaron says: “I recently caught Covid from someone with a ‘bad cold’. When they notified me, I tested every day and got a positive after two days. I had previously caught Covid in January 2022. The symptoms were different this time, with fever, dizziness, chills and body pain, so it could have been a different variant.”

She adds: “Maybe there aren’t many positives because people test once when they start to develop symptoms, rather than retesting during the estimated incubation period. It’s an expensive process and unpleasant. So, with a negative test they put it down to a bad cold or flu and just treat the symptoms.”

WHAT ABOUT THE SUPER FLU?

With hardly anybody claiming to have Covid, many people complain of a cough with fatigue lasting three weeks, or a feverish flu that sends you to bed for a week instead. Colds never used to last that long. Arguably, the lack of mingling, and the prevalence of masks during the pandemic have lowered our resistance to germs, our immune response.

Ivan Sanz Muñoz, of Spain’s National Influenza Center of Valladolid, said in an interview: “Covid-19 displaced

all respiratory viruses, in general. For this reason, now everyone is sick, since the viruses are recovering their ecological niche.

“In addition, the flu virus mutates 10 times faster than the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.”

Recent articles from America suggest that during the pandemic people lied about their children having Covid.

That’s no surprise. People working in the gig economy, or freelancers with no sick pay, cannot afford to be ill. A possible Covid infection is easy to pass off as a bad cold; a lack of testing means that most people don’t even know what they’ve caught. And then they spread it.

WHERE DID COVID REALLY COME FROM?

This March, the US Congress passed a bill to declassify documents about the origins of Covid. They suggest

Quick Crossword

Across: 5 Focaccia, 7 Stir, 8 Objectionable, 9 Owned, 11 Credit, 13 U S A, 14 Violin, 15 Hedge, 17 Temperamental, 20 Cost, 21 Spritzer.

Down: 1 Farewell, 2 Acute, 3 Majorca, 4 Yielding, 6 Orb, 7 Sea, 10 White-hot, 12 Eternity, 13 Undress, 16 Smart, 18 Pet, 19 Ale.

that it comes from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The American contingent is now asking what research the Wuhan laboratory carried out before the outbreak of Covid, and why some researchers were sick in 2019.

As one Olive Press reader said when the pandemic started: “If there was a puddle beside the puppy, you might reasonably think the puppy did it”. Despite that, WHO did its best to reassure the world that Covid mutated from pangolins sold in the nearby Wuhan wet market.

WHERE ARE WE GOING NOW?

According to Statista, Spain had 3.7 million Covid cases up to March 1, 2023; and 119,400 deaths. Despite that, some people still claim that Covid never existed, and was just ‘flu’.

Although we have emerged back into a kind of normality, the impact on Spain’s mental health (and people’s finances) is still felt today. And there’s a whole Covid generation: children born after March 2020 know nothing other than the Covid era.

During the pandemic, we all saw division and even hate within our communities –mask wars, conspiracy theories, and reporting of neighbours who ventured outside. This division in society exists today. It hasn’t gone away.

If we have learnt anything at all, it’s maybe that the truth can be bent, and, where the pandemic is concerned, falls somewhere in the big space between official dialogue and conspiracies.

14 marked the third anniversary of Spain’s state of alarm: a strange new world of Covid, masks and nasal tests, and Europe’s strictest lockdown. But has it really gone?

GOODBYE: to the worst of Covid?

TheOlivePress-256x170-CAR-4.indd 1

INDITEX - the world's biggest fashion retailer - posted a 27% rise in net profits last year as sales exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

Net income soared to a record €4.1 billion in results covering the first full year that Marta Ortega, daughter of Inditex founder Armancio Ortega, took over running the company. In-store and online sales reached €32.6 billion - 18% more than the €27.71 billion posted last year and 15% higher than in 2019, before the Covid pandemic struck. The positive figures come despite Inditex closing and then selling off its 514 stores in Russia - its biggest market outside Spain - following last year's invasion of Ukraine.

Getting richer PROFITS UP

THE value of Spanish pension scheme assets fell by €482 million to €82 billion in February 2023, according to new data. Following an increase in asset values in January, a more ‘challenging market environment’ caused the drop last month, according to pension advisory organisation Inverco. But Inverco suggested that projected returns in the medium to long term for individual schemes were positive.

Falling value

“For example, at 26 years, the pension schemes will register an average annual return of 2.5% while at 10 and 15 years it is estimated that the return will be 2.6% and 2% respectively,” a spokesperson said. Benefits paid out during the month totalled €207m compared to contributions of €115m.

RECORD HIGH

FOOD and non-alcoholic beverages rose in February by 16.6% over 12 months - 1.2% higher than in January.

Price rises continue as food inflations hit peak

By Alex Trelinski

The food inflation rate, according to the National Institute of Statistics, is at its highest point since it started using the current measuring system in 1994. The peak in the current

MERCADONA has reported that profits rose 5% last year as consumers had to deal with increased prices.

The company made €718 million in 2022 - up from €680 million the previous year. Mercadona president and main shareholder, Juan Roig, said that €161 million in dividends had been paid out and in ‘the interests of transparency’, he declared his annual salary as €11 million. On rising food prices, Juan Roig said his business had cut profit margins by 0.6% to help customers.

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WHY do we feel so much nostalgia for the 80s? It was such a stressfree decade with bold fashion statements and new hair trends. Remember mixing music on cassette tapes, recording your message on home answering machines, and not to forget how neon colours rocked with scrunched-up legwarmers over spandex tights. So satisfying.

Well 9 out of 10 Línea Directa customers get the same satisfaction and recommend the best priced car, bike and home insurance to friends and family.

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CHECK-OUT OUR POLICIES

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DEDICATED TO EXPATS

Línea Directa has been providing comprehen-

Cruise control

MINISTER for Tourism Vijay Daryanani has tried to ‘build on’ Gibraltar’s pandemic comeback at the European Cruise Summit in Paris. Alongside Tourist Board CEO Kebin Bossino, he met cruise lines bosses, politicians and industry press in the French capital.

“The Minister and Mr Bossino met with executives from Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Group, TUI Cruises, Crystal Cruises and others,” the government said in a statement.

economic crisis was 15.7% in December with this year’s IVA tax cuts on basic food essentials being quickly swallowed up by rising prices. Increased fresh food costs for vegetables, fruits, and legumes are behind the rise due to supply issues caused by weather conditions in Spain and in other EU countries, and the resulting increase in international demand.

Last month, Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said there were ‘reasons to believe that food inflation had peaked’, but clearly that is not the case, with added pressure now on the government to do more. Among some of the biggest rises over 12 months,

there’s sugar (52.6%), butter (39.1%), sauces and condiments (33.8%), olive oil (33.5%) and whole milk (33.2%).

Food inflation has been in double digits for 11 months in a row and Spain’[s problems are mirrored elsewhere in Europe.

Farmers

For example, Germany’s rate for February was 21.8%

Rising prices have been caused by farmers having to pay more for basic items like seeds, feed, fertilisers, electricity or fuel, but experts believe with those rates now falling, reductions will start to be passed on through the food chain.

Daryanani also met Spain’s Secretary of State for Tourism Rosana Morillo, one of the main speakers at the conference.

“We must continue to work hard to keep the business we currently hold, but also build on this,” Gibraltar’s Minister for Tourism said.

“It is an exceptionally competitive world out there and everyone I speak to in the industry is impressed with the manner in which we have recovered so quickly after the pandemic, but we want more.

“I am extremely ambitious for Gibraltar’s cruising industry and believe we have to attract more calls and this is what I will strive to deliver.”

The former high street businessman has brought 20 first-time tours to Gibraltar, smashing a 2016 record.

sive car, motorbike and home insurance to British expatriates and residents in Spain for over 25 years. With over 3 million customers nationwide, Línea Directa makes sure you get the best possible price for the kind of insurance you really need.

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Their Roadside Assistance team speaks English and will quickly help you with your onward journey. If you urgently need a duplicate set of keys for your motorcycle, then their English-speaking customer service will sort it out. And should you require Home Assistance to set up your new Wi-Fi connection, then English speaking technical staff will set up a visit.

DID YOU KNOW?

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During 2022, Mercadona opened 63 new stores to reach 1,676 establishments in total across Spain and Portugal.

Better drivers

WOMEN are safer than men on the road, according to Spain’s Directorate-General for Traffic. It revealed 60% of women drivers have never received any type of traffic penalty.

Stitch Up

A MALAGA policeman has been sent to jail for attempting to frame a drunk driver for assault. The cop smashed his own head on a wall and told the driver ‘you did this’.

High notes

TICKET sales from live music and festivals have contributed a whopping €459 million in 2022 in Spain, with Andalucia contributing €75,907,173 to that total figure.

P LIVE RESS The O

Trash or treasure

Aussie farmer finds ‘Spanish’

Unidentified Floating Object

By Anthony Piovesan

at his property near Mission Beach in Queensland, in the country’s north.

The 55-year-old believes it could have come from Spain because of the words inscribed in it, ‘Cape Finisterre’. The location is a rock-bound

TABBED UP

A PAIR of Liverpool fans in Spain for a match against Real Madrid ‘generously’ bought everyone in the bar several drinks. But when it came time to leave at 2.30am the self-proclaimed ‘millionaires’ tried to scarper without settling their €2,200 tab. They had earlier stumped up €1,000 but carried on running up the bill. Police were called and - after a struggle - the duo were arrested, accused of fraud.

peninsula on the west coast of Galicia in Spain.

The object is about 32cm wide and shaped in a circle, with a barcode and serial number, and an on-off button.

“I was just walking along the beach naked - it’s my private property so I can do that - and I found this thing that at first looked like a jellyfish,” Deacon said.

“When I looked closer I realised it was some gadget UFO-type thing.

“It has it written faintly in black ‘Cape Finisterre’, and I Googled

it and saw it was a location in Spain.

“If this thing has travelled all the way from Spain, especially to the Queensland coast, then it would have needed to get around South America or Africa which is an absolute miracle.”

It may seem unlikely that the mystery object travelled 12,500 miles all the way from Spain, but there has been a recorded instance of a bottle thrown into the sea in Spain being found in New Zealand.

Do you know what the object could be? Email newsdesk@theolivepress.es

FOUR years after hitting the headlines after installing ‘Spain’s largest urban slide’ then shutting it down 24 hours later after several injuries, Estepona is trying again. In 2019 the terrifying slide in the Costa del Sol town, which was 38 metres long and had a gradient of 33 degrees, was ripped out after several people suffered friction burns and bruising.

It connected two streets and was designed to give people a fast way down.

Now the council has opened its new offices - and incorporated a slide between floors for employees, again to save time.

Suckers

CAMPAIGNERS are calling for plans for the world’s first commercial octopus farm to be sent to Davy Jones’ locker. Seafood producer Pescanova has proposed a €65 million farm on Gran Canaria. The proposal to kill around 1 million octopuses a year with ice slurry will ‘cause considerable pain, fear and suffering as well as a prolonged death’, according to animal rights activists.

AN AUSTRALIAN farmer wearing nothing but a cowboy hat was walking along the beach with his dog when he found an object washed up on a beach which he believes came all the way from Spain. Rob Deacon told the Olive Press he found the mysterious circular object on the shore

VOYAGE: A mystery object could have washed up in Australia from Galicia