The
OLIVE PRESS
OLIVE PRESS
BREXIT NIGHTMARE
Hellcare
THE healthcare costs of hundreds of thousands of British nationals in Spain may only be covered for a matter of months. Government officials have confirmed that in the event of a no-deal Brexit expats’ unrestricted access to healthcare could end after just six months. In the nightmare scenario, the often costly treatment would have to be funded by the individuals after that date. While a British embassy spokesman insisted the new ruling would not be introduced until the end of 2020, it is still a major jolt for already worried expats.
Taxes
“Having paid taxes our whole working lives, pensioners should be entitled to free healthcare whether we choose to retire in Bradford, Bournemouth or Barcelona,” said Sue Wilson, of Bremain in Spain. “The UK government is trying to reassure people with this new announcement, but inevitably people will ask ‘what about after six months?’” The Department of Health has sofar only pledged £150m to cover the costs of British nationals living in the EU after a no-deal. This would cover pensioners, students, those on disability benefits and UK workers posted to the EU, as well as UK tourists who began their holiday before the UK’s exit. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Protecting the healthcare rights of UK nationals is a priority of this government. UK nationals in the EU’ should nevertheless act now and take the simple steps needed to secure their access to healthcare.” Opinion, Page 6
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hopped into the 13-year-old as his father left driver’s seat the car en-
who held criminally cannot be - floored it and responsible crashed into the Laude School.
MISSING: Torte
From pet passports to dodgy removal men, one British family’s highs and lows as they set up in Spain before Brexit strikes...
Bolted on
Modern masterpieces
Issue 33
Have you seen a tortoise around Jalon? Contact the Olive Press at newsdesk@theolivepress.es
BAREBACK:
In Ibiza
But which is Spain’s favourite modernist building?
September 2019
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See page III (a clue is in the picture in the middle)
Lis, y sa illa Ca st on Ca Le
UPS AND DOWNS
Growth figures for buyers and a drop July make up for sluggish foreign in June
SPAIN has recorded month for property its best growth. sales for In total, 11 years, new government 11 of Spain’s 17 re- difficult for owners to rent to data gions grew over tourists. This has made has revealed. the last year. ty on the islands less properA total of 47,890 transactions It made up for a 9% year-onattractive as investment opportunities. year drop in June, were reported in which sugJuly 2019, gested marking a 3.8% year-on-year the market was really Further negative news saw foreign buyers drop by slowing down. increase. British buyers among 7%, with There have also been June 2008 was the those besome more homes were last time declines in the long time big ing put off purchasing in Spain for- (see Slow Down, in Spain, continuingsnapped up eigners favourite the Balearics pg the trend as well hoped that the end of II). It is of steady market growth. as Madrid, which the BrexThe regions of Extremedura drops of 21.9% and 8.1% saw it saga, possibly next month, re- and the long spectively. In (23.4%), La Rioja (22.4%) awaited return to and slump followsthe Balearics the political stability Castilla-La Mancha can help recuon from the in(21.6%) re- troduction corded the largest year-on-year of strict new rental perate British losses while also bringing laws which have made it more foreign anda boost to both the domestic markets. DECLINE:
Mallorca’s property
market has dramatically
slowed down following
new rental laws
Your expat
voice in Spain
Get me out of here! THE biggest peacetime repatriation of Britons abroad is in full swing following the collapse of Britain’s oldest travel company Thomas Cook. A shocking 104,000 British holidaymakers are still stranded overseas after the travel giant’s collapse on Monday. A massive 70,000 of them were stuck in Spain, when the travel giant - which has 55 hotels and dozens of planes in Spain - filed for bankruptcy. Mallorca is expected to lose 25,000 tourists in October alone due to the
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By Robert Firth and Gillian Keller
firm’s collapse. Most holidaymakers had been left in the dark about their travel plans. Meanwhile many did not know if their hotels would charge them. All clients are ATOL protected, meaning they will be provided with flights home. Nonetheless, customers are facing delays of hours, even days, which many cannot afford.
In a new book serialisation, Jason Heppenstall recalls the unique and fascinating genesis of the Olive Press 16/06/2017 15:36 See Page 18
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Replacement flight rip offs, evictions from hotels, anxiety among thousands of tourists as Thomas Cook folds after 178 years
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for Spanish residents
2019
Vol. 3 Issue 64 www.theolivepress.es September 27th - October 10th 2019
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voice in Spain
September 10th
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FREE INSIDE
TOWIE star Mark Wright has discovered he is related to Andalucian men on BBCswordsWho Do You show Think You Are?
Vol. 13 Issue 325
A WOMAN filmed riding has been a red Ferrarinaked upon gar-chomping as its ciA RANDY tortoise has gone es the streets driver cruismissing from FOOT FETISH: of Ibiza. his Costa Appeal launched Tortoise gets The Blanca home woman stuck in while his Brit after for ‘randy’ tortoise appears completely owner is urgently it escapes from oblivious as stairs, Kent, appealing to the public and went to she dances to British centre for help. stay two nights reggaeton Corrales ‘Torte’ the tortoise in a local music blaring from B&B. disap- Tuesday. area of Jalon last from the slow-moving peared from Greece, and the Camino He has been “When we picked him The incident supercar. is understood in up was to come theDavid Priaulx’s care for the owner gave me an in- at the Marina Ibiza filmed last 30 years. voice, saying on the Balearic island, ‘no “I’ve had so and was many esca- ever stayed for freeone had later widely pades with and he shared on sowasn’t years,” David,him over the “Torte’sgoing to be the first’. cial media. like my But the Jalon, told the who lives in but I love him andnemesis, pursueddriver is now being “He escaped Olive Press. for reckless so does once in Broad- the whole family.” driving. David added that Torte an- A city council swers to his name. son said the spokesperHe said, however, authorities that the hope to track down randy tortoise A JOY ride has will ‘pick culprits soon as ‘there the on anyone’ gone pearare not many cars shaped after to make a and is known Ibiza’. like this in an Irish teen gine running outside a smashed through garage noise’ when loud ‘shrilling a school All in San Pedro. wall in his dad’s mounting the chaos then ensued shoes of his victims. The cheeky Audi A4. as the minor -
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The old and the new and the downright, bizarre. Find out what’s hot in our Property Magazine
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Music to our ears ROSALIA has become the first Spaniard to win an MTV Music Award, by ‘Best Latino bagging for her song Video’ Con Altura with J Balvin and El Guincho.
Testing times A MAN, 26, has been gored edly in hisrepeatcles at a bulltestirun in Cuellar, near Valladolid, after he jumped a fence became tangled.and
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Some customers said that they had been forced to fork out huge sums of money for quicker replacement flights. Jamie Marshall, 40, told the Olive Press he had spent €1200 on replacement flights from Mallorca to London for his family of four. “It’s very disappointing,” he said. “We weren’t told anything. If a pilot I know hadn’t told me, I’d have just turned up at the airport.” Meanwhile, there have been several reports of hotels threatening to kick out Thomas Cook guests if they fail to cough-up huge sums of money. Bars in Magaluf clubbed together to pay for food, drinks and accommodation for a group of five lads from Manchester, after staff at the BH Mallorca hotel allegedly threatened to kick them out if they didn’t pay €1800 euros. “I don’t understand why they were kicking those boys out. They hadn’t done anything wrong,” a barman told the Olive Press. He added: “There is no one in the resort helping out. Why isn’t there someone from the British Consulate here?” Many others were forced to bed down on airport floors as they battle mammoth queues in airports. One mum stranded in Almeria said she would runout of vital food supplies for her disabled daughter, unless she is flown home this week. Demine Warner, 25, from Essex, said she urgently needed medicine for her daughter Aubree, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and needs to be tube-fed milk through her stomach if they weren’t flown home in time. “We still haven’t heard anything. I’m worried about my daughter as she is on medical milk and cannot eat the food here,” she said. “We will
Where Brits were stranded in Spain Palma 9,671 Tenerife 7,216 Lanzarote 4,625 Menorca 4,611 Ibiza 3,399
Fuerteventura 2,565 Reuse 2,467 Gran Canaria 2,115 Almeria 1,549 Girona 685 Alicante 534 STUCK: Palma worst affected soon run out.” In the biggest travel company collapse in history, 600,000 people were left stranded worldwide after the UK government denied an eleventh-hour bailout of £250 million. The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has commandeered a fleet of 45 aircraft from as far away as Malaysia to support the massive rescue operation. They will fly from 53 destinations in 17 countries. By the end of Wednesday almost 46,000 passengers had been flown back home to the UK on 206 planes, the third day of the mammoth rescue operation. Continues on Page 8
Opinion Page 6