Left-wing eco-mafiosi have spray-painted Lionel Messi’s £10million family home, claiming the rich are ‘responsible for the climate crisis’.
Climate activists released footage showing two members of their group standing outside the Argentine star’s Ibiza villa, near the bay of Cala Tarida, holding a banner reading: ‘Help the planet – eat the rich – abolish the police.’
Activists from the Futuro Vegetal (Plant-Based Future) group sprayed the white facade of the building with red and black paint.
In a statement on X, the group said: ‘We have signed Messi’s mansion in Ibiza. The mansion is an illegal construction that the footballer acquired for the exorbitant sum of 11 million EURO.’
The group added: ‘While the far right blames immigrants for the crisis and is extremely violent against them, people like us, who fight for a better world, understand very well that the problem is social inequality.’
Left-wing eco-mafiosi have sprayed Lionel Messi’s £10million Ibiza family home, pictured
The climate group Futuro Vegetal has sprayed the white facade of the building with red and black paint
Messi, who currently plays for Inter Miami in the US, is said to have bought the property for around €11 million
Futuro Vegetal cited a 2023 Oxfam report that found that the richest 1 percent of the world’s population generated as much carbon emissions in 2019 as the poorest two-thirds of humanity.
And yet it is precisely the most vulnerable communities that are experiencing the ‘worst consequences’ of this crisis.
Messi, who currently plays for American side Inter Miami, reportedly bought the property on the Mediterranean island – which includes a spa with sauna and cinema room – from a Swiss businessman in 2022 for around €11 million (£10 million).
But the mansion did not have a occupancy permit, a document issued by a local government agency that states the home is habitable, because several rooms were built in the property without a permit, Spanish media reported.
Futuro Vegetal, which has ties to similar groups internationally, has organized dozens of similar protests, including in 2022, when they glued their hands to the frames of paintings by Spanish master Francisco de Goya in Madrid’s Prado Museum.
Last year, activists from the group sprayed red and black paint on a superyacht anchored in Ibiza, believed to be owned by Nancy Walton Laurie, the billionaire heiress of US retail giant Walmart.
Spanish police reported in January that they had arrested 22 members of Futuro Vegetal, including the two who organised the protest at the Prado and the group’s three main leaders.
The eco-mafiosi in the photo holding a banner that reads: ‘Help the planet – eat the rich – abolish the police’
Two members of the group pose in front of the footballer’s goal posts in his backyard
In a statement on X, the group said: ‘The mansion is an illegal construction that the footballer bought for the exorbitant sum of 11 million euros’
Futuro Vegetal has organized dozens of similar protests, including one in 2022 in which they glued their hands to the frames of paintings by Spanish master Francisco de Goya
Last year, Futuro Vegetal vandalised Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie’s £241million superyacht Kaos by dousing it in red and black paint.
Protesters from the group sprayed the 110-metre-long vessel with fire extinguishers while it was anchored in Ibiza at around 9am on Sunday morning.
Footage emerged of two eco-sandals walking up to the ‘Kaos’ and beginning to spray the vessel with paint, while crews ran outside to rinse the vessel off with water.
After defacing the superyacht, which belongs to the Walmart heiress with an estimated net worth of $7.7 billion, protesters held up a sign reading “You consume, others suffer.”
A crew member from a yacht near Kaos told MailOnline the damage to the vessel is likely to cost the owner ‘millions’ and criticised the ‘useless’ port security.