Climate activists have vandalized Lionel Messi's $12 million family villa in Ibiza.
Protesters from the group Futuro Vegetal spray-painted the front of the Argentina star's home and unfurled a banner blaming the rich for the climate crisis. It read: "Help the Planet - Eat the Rich - Abolish the Police."
Futuro Vegetal also released footage showing two members of the group standing outside Messi's Ibiza villa near Cala Tarida. They sprayed the white facade with red and black paint.
The group stated on X (formerly Twitter), "We inked Messi's mansion in Ibiza. The mansion is an illegal construction the footballer acquired for the exorbitant sum of EUROS 11 million."
They also criticized social inequality, saying, "While the extreme right-wing blames the crisis on immigrants and displays extreme violence towards them, people like us who fight for a better world clearly understand the problem is social inequality."
Futuro Vegetal referenced a 2023 Oxfam report indicating the richest one percent of the world's population produced as much carbon emissions in 2019 as the poorest two-thirds. Despite this, the most vulnerable communities bear the worst consequences of the crisis.
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Argentina president backs Messi, calls for 'safety'
Messi, currently playing for Inter Miami in the US, reportedly bought the Mediterranean island property in 2022 from a Swiss businessman. The villa features a spa with a sauna and a cinema room. However, according to Spanish media, the mansion lacked a certificate of occupancy due to the construction of several rooms without a license.
Futuro Vegetal has a history of similar protests. In 2022, they glued their hands to frames of paintings by Francisco de Goya at Madrid's Prado Museum. And last year, activists spray-painted a superyacht owned by Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie in Ibiza, causing significant damage.
In the aftermath of the latest protest, Argentina president Javier Milei expressed his support for Messi and his family, and called for the Spanish government to guarantee the safety of Argentine citizens.
Milei posted on X: "In Spain, communists who want to 'murder the rich and abolish the police to end climate change' vandalized a home of Lionel Messi and his family.
"I stand in solidarity with the Messi family for this cowardly and delusional event and I ask Pedro Sanchez's government to guarantee the safety of the Argentine citizens who live in the Kingdom of Spain.
"Communism is an ideology fostered by envy, hatred and resentment towards the successful. It has no place in the free and civilized world."
