The
OLIVE PRESS
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 nodeal 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 en-
titled 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.”
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From pet passports to dodgy removal men, one British family’s highs and lows as they set up in Spain before Brexit strikes...
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A WOMAN filmed riding
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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
See page X
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 a boost to laws which have made both the it more foreign and domestic markets.
DECLINE: Mallorca’s
property market has
dramatically slowed
down following new
rental laws
Vol. 1 Issue 14 www.theolivepress.es
Your expat
voice in Spain
September 26th - October 9th 2019
Replacement flight rip offs, evictions from hotels, anxiety among thousands of tourists as Thomas Cook folds after 178 years
Hellcare
VENDORS
2019
COSTA BLANCA
The BREXIT NIGHTMARE
Your
expat
voice in Spain
September 10th
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who held criminally cannot be - floored it and responsible crashed into the Laude School.
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hopped into the 13-year-old as his father left driver’s seat the car en-
MISSING: Torte
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Vol. 13 Issue 325
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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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
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 120,000 British holidaymakers are still stranded overseas following the travel giant’s collapse on Monday. A massive 70,000 of them were stuck in Spain, when the massive firm which has 55 hotels and dozens of planes in Spain - filed for bankruptcy. Most of them were left in the dark
By Robert Firth and Joshua Parfitt in Alicante
about their travel plans and even if their hotels would be paid. While all clients are ATOL protected, meaning they would be provided with flights home, many could not afford the expected wait for many hours, even days. Some customers told the Olive Press how they had been forced to fork out huge sums of money for quicker replacement
IT’S SPAIN vs FRANCE: Which country comes out top for World Tourism Day on September 27? Find out on Page 27
flights. Jamie Marshall, 40, told the Olive Press he had spent €1200 euros 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.” Many others were forced to bed down on airport floors as they battled mammoth queues in airports. One mum, stranded in Almeria, insisted she will run out of vital food supplies for her disabled daughter unless she is flown home this week. Demine Warner, 25, from Essex, will urgently need medicine for Aubree, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and needs to be tube-fed milk through her stomach, if they don’t get to fly out as scheduled by this Wednesday (today). “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 soon run out.” Thomas Cook customers at some hotels meanwhile, reported staff threatening to kick them out if they didn’t pay huge amounts of money.
Bars in Magaluf clubbed together to pay for food, drinks and accommodation for a group of five lads from Manchester. It came after staff at the BH Mallorca hotel allegedly threatened to kick them out if they didn’t cough up €1800. “I don’t understand why they were kicking those boys out. They hadn’t done anything wrong,” a barman told the Olive Press. 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 Tuesday, 30,000 out of 150,000 passengers had been flown home, with around 5% having to spend a day longer in Spain. A massive 21,000 people (thousands in Spain) have been left jobless by the travel firm’s sudden collapse, with 9,000 in the
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