“We stained Messi‘s illegal mansion in Ibiza“. Without hiding. This is what appears in the social networks of Futuro Vegetal with images of the white facade of the villa that Leo Messi has in Sant Josep, absolutely defaced in red and black.
“The mansion is an illegal construction that the footballer acquired for the exorbitant figure of 11 million euros. While this is happening, only in the Balearic Islands have died between 2 and 4 people as a direct result of the heat wave. The richest 1% of the population is responsible for the same amount of carbon emissions as the poorest two thirds“These are some of the phrases that accompany the images of the illegal act against the soccer player’s house and in which, in addition, the perpetrators appear posing in front of the entrance of the house with a banner: “Help the planet. Eat the rich. Abolish the police” (“Help the planet. Eat the rich. Abolish the police”).
Activists inside Leo Messi’s villa in Ibiza / Instagram
Among the images that Futuro Vegetal has posted on its social networks, you can see how the activists have sneaked (at night) into Messi’s house. They have taken pictures both in the illuminated swimming pool and in front of a goal of a small soccer field where Messi’s sons and friends play some games when they rest in Ibiza.
“This is just another sign of how the law does not work the same for everyone“, said Bilbo Bassaterra, spokesperson for the collective, who added that “this same week on the island almost 200 workers have been evicted from a settlement without a housing solution, while the Popular Party, together with Vox, plan to legalize illegal buildings in exchange for payment”.
In this way, the activist considers that “are policies at the service of those who have the most and that directly attack the rights of the rest of the population”.
This is the second summer that Futuro Vegetal chooses Ibiza for its protest actions. Last season it sprayed black paint on the cherries of the Pacha discothequelast season, stormed the luxury beach club Blue Marlin in Cala Jondal with protest banners with the slogan: ‘Your luxury our climate crisis’.
He also threw paint at a private jet, a Lamborghini and the mega-yacht Kaos, owned by Nancy Walton Laurie, the billionaire heiress of the Walmart company.
With the banner, at the entrance of the salon / Instagram
who are Futuro Vegetal?
According to the information that appears on the website of this organization, Futuro Vegetal is defined as “a collective of civil disobedience and direct action that fights the climate crisis by adopting a plant-based agri-food system.”
Futuro Vegetal argues that Oxfam’s 2023 report notes that “the richest 1% of the world’s population generated the same amount of carbon emissions in 2019 as the poorest two-thirds of humanity, despite the fact that it is precisely the most vulnerable communities who suffer the worst consequences of the crisis.”
“Against all logic, the policies of (Pedro) Sánchez continue to be aimed at subsidizing large meat corporation magnates and energy corporations, which are mainly responsible for the increase in the Earth’s average temperature,” the organization criticized.
Through its social networks, Futuro Vegetal has criticized that “the institutions are at the service of a small ruling class and do not represent the popular will”, so that “it is responsibility of the whole society to generate alternatives desirable alternatives that meet the basic needs of the entire population”.
In relation to the police, the organization considers it a “repressive tool whose primary objective is to maintain an order of things where the ruling classes know they are unpunished” and that the maintenance of this is “incompatible with achieving effective solutions to the climate crisis”.
Messi’s ‘illegal’ house
In September 2022 a technical report of the Sant Josep City Council qualified as “serious, at least”the urban development infringement detected in the works carried out in the villa of Cala Tarida bought a few months earlier by Messi.
The works consisting of “earthworksearthworks, terracing, changes in the topography of the land, excavations for installations and foundations“were being carried out at the time of the municipal inspection.
The village of Messiy, above, the area of earthworks in 2022. / GOOGLE MAPS
Being undertaken without a license, on land classified as rustic land, the urban infraction is qualified as a “serious”. In any case, part of the plot is in zone 2 (slope between 20 and 40%) according to the Insular Territorial Plan (PTI) of Ibiza and partially in zone 2 (slope between 20 and 40%) according to the Insular Territorial Plan (PTI) of Ibiza rustic land protected by risks of erosion. It is also located in an aquifer vulnerability risk protection area. Therefore, the technical report states that the works described as serious and executed in protected rural land are classified as “…”very serious urban infraction”but it does not clarify whether this is the case.