O LIVE P RESS
The
KINGS OF THE NORTH
Your expat
voice in Spain
COSTA BLANCA SUR / MURCIA FREE Vol. 3 Issue 75 www.theolivepress.es October 6th - October 19th 2022
PLUSThe true story behind the Reina
de Ronda and how she became an international drug queenpin spawning TV dramas and films - See page 6
QUEEN OF THE SOUTH
S
C O ST
A
OU
R
DS O
INVADE THE EMBASSY
Get the full story Page 4
HUNDREDS of angry expats are threatening to ‘invade’ the British embassy next week. They are converging from all over Spain in a protest to demand action over their inability to drive here due to Brexit changes. T h e
group - including mostly long term residents - are furious the British and Spanish governments seem unable to strike the most basic deal. Meanwhile, expats in almost every other European country have been given the right to swap their licences for local ones. “It is totally unfair and really disgusting that Spanish residents are being trapped in a game that has nothing to do with our ability to drive,” said Scott Rattray, who lives in Lloret de Mar. “All the other countries managed to not treat their foreign residents like this.” Another victim, T o m Kington, based in rural Valencia, added: “The fact there is speculation that this may be linked to the future of Gibraltar is See page 9 atrocious.
Tel: 952 147 834
NOW
New naked protest to save last virgin beach
N
Angry expat motorists banned from driving in Spain announce national demo in capital
U -T U R
!
AN
FF
H
How this ‘Famous Five’ of Northern Spanish chefs have helped to topple the French from their culinary throne - See page 14
By Simon Hunter
“We are real people with real lives and not pawns in some political game.” Negotiations over the movement of workers and trade across the Spain-Gibraltar border are now in their second year and are bogged down in legal issues. A Facebook group titled ‘Invasion of the British embassy in Madrid’ has pencilled in October 13 for a protest outside the embassy in northern Madrid. The victims, who will mostly come by bus or train, are urging expats from all over Spain to turn out to support them. They have been writing dozens of letters to their MPs back in the UK and politicians in Spain, as well as backing the Olive Press U-Turn campaign we launched in June. So far demands to Spain’s DGT traffic authority have gone unanswered, while the British embassy itself has limited its responses to the video updates by ambassador Hugh Elliott. Despite announcing in July that the ‘main text’ of the deal had been agreed, Elliot’s latest message has dashed any hopes that a solution is near. The latest missive, in which he ad-
GROUND ZERO: Protests heads here mits there are a couple of ‘complex’ issues left, has angered the group, which now has over 500 members. “Politics first, people last. It really is indefensible,” Malcolm Weston told the Olive Press this week. Opinion Page 6