Climate activists on Tuesday spray painted a house belonging to Argentine football star Lionel Messi on the Spanish island of Ibiza to highlight the “responsibility of the rich for the climate crisis”.
Activists from the Futuro Vegetal group have released a video showing two members standing in front of a house near the bay of Cala Tarida on Ibiza’s west coast holding a banner that reads: “Help the planet – Eat the rich – Abolish the police.”
The workers then sprayed red and black paint on the white portion of the building.
In a statement, the group said they wanted to show “the responsibility of the rich for the climate crisis” by targeting the mansion, which they described as an “illegal construction.”
Futuro Vegetal cites a 2023 Oxfam report that found that the richest one percent of the world’s population emitted the same amount of carbon in 2019 as the poorest two-thirds of humanity, despite the fact that it is the most vulnerable communities that are suffering the “worst consequences” of the crisis.
Messi, who currently plays for Inter Miami in the US, reportedly bought the property on the Mediterranean island – which includes a spa with a sauna and cinema room – from a Swiss businessman in 2022 for around 11 million euros ($12 million).
But according to Spanish media reports, the mansion did not have a certificate of occupancy, a document issued by a local government agency certifying that it is in habitable condition, as several rooms in the property were constructed without a licence.
Futuro Vegetal, which is linked to similar groups internationally, has carried out dozens of such protests, including one in 2022 where they glued their hands to the frame of a painting by Spanish master Francisco de Goya at Madrid’s Prado Museum.
Last year, activists from the group spray-painted red and black paint on a superyacht moored in Ibiza that reportedly belonged to Nancy Walton Lowry, the billionaire heiress to US retail giant Walmart.
In January, Spanish police said they had arrested 22 members of Futuro Vegetal, including two men who protested at the Prado and the group’s three top leaders.
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