Sant Antoni mayor denies attending Egyptian-themed party and insists they did not know the lake contained ‘real water’

Sant Antoni mayor Marcos Serra has denied attending the controversial Egyptian-themed party held two weeks ago at sa Pedrera de Can Coix and has reiterated that the Town Council did not know the artificial lake would contain “real water”, despite acknowledging that the word “water” appears alongside blue-coloured plans of the installation on ten pages of the event’s project documentation.

There was considerable anticipation in Sant Antoni ahead of Thursday’s clash at the municipal plenary session between the governing team and the opposition, which submitted a motion containing 15 questions about the Egyptian-themed party.

During what the mayor later described as an “euphoric and humorous” intervention, Socialist councillor Raúl Díaz condensed them into five main questions: “Was the party harmless? Where are the installation and structural stability certificates? Were noise regulations complied with? Was the mayor at the party? Did the plans say ‘water’?”

Of those five questions, the mayor answered two.

First, he denied having attended the Egyptian-themed party and said he was also “not aware” of any other member of the municipal government having been there.

Secondly, he offered an unusual explanation for the now well-known word 'water', which appears on 10 of the 69 pages of the descriptive project report submitted for the event.

“The Town Council did not know about the lake. It is true that the word ‘water’ appeared on the plans, but there were also obelisks and a pyramid, and they were not made of stone. The descriptive report did not explain that a real lake was going to be created. Just because the word ‘water’ appears on a plan does not mean an installation containing real water is going to be built”, Serra argued.

“We have an obligation to provide explanations and explanations have been given today. It has been sufficiently explained”, he said at the end of his intervention.

PSOE accuses him of ‘lying to the public’

The mayor therefore stood by the version he has maintained since Diario de Ibiza revealed that an artificial lake had been installed for the Egyptian-themed party, which was held to mark the 50th birthday of a wealthy American woman and required at least 170 tonnes of water.

The opposition seized on the issue.

“The liability insurance was submitted in English. You understood that, but not the word ‘water’. Or did you think ‘water’ meant the toilet?” Díaz asked

“If nobody saw the artificial lake, then we have a very serious problem of incompetence. And if they did see it and said nothing, then the problem is even greater”, he added.

His fellow Socialist councillor Xavi Rey directly accused the mayor of “lying to the public” and called for his resignation.

“There was no secrecy or lack of transparency”, Serra said regarding the event.

He also repeated that “the Town Council did not rent out the quarry for €199” and again referred to the €50,000 donation as the reason the project had been approved. At the same time, he stressed that “a charitable contribution does not allow anyone to bypass the rules” and argued that sa Pedrera is not “an untouched natural site”, but rather “an area profoundly altered by human activity over decades”.

For her part, Urban Planning councillor Eva María Prats defended the work carried out at the quarry by Van Wyck & Van Wyck, the company behind the event, saying that everything was “covered by the authorisation” issued by the Town Council, which did not give its final approval until just a few hours before the party began.

Like the mayor, she argued that “everything was specified in the descriptive report except the issue of the water”.

“It was not known that real water was going to be used, and this issue should not continue to be misrepresented. If it is established that drinking water was used for ornamental purposes, that could be subject to sanctions, although proving it is not easy. At no point did this Town Council provide access to water.

“The event was authorised for charitable reasons, because of the contribution it made to the municipality’s social organisations. Both organisations are very grateful for the donations”, she said, referring to Cáritas and Motoclub Formentera i Eivissa.

"Legality cannot be bought with a donation"

Regarding the €199 administrative fee paid by the organisers to use the quarry for several weeks, Prats said she could “understand that it might seem insufficient”.

As for complaints from residents about the disruption caused by the event, she said there was only one recorded call from a resident, at 3.12am.

“When the police arrived a few minutes later, there was no longer any music. The noise came from people leaving the venue”, she explained.

“The more you try to justify this party, the more questions this file raises. It is an absolute disaster”, Díaz replied.

“If the party was so harmless, it is curious that they needed 69 pages for the descriptive report. I can assure you 500% that, as well as plenty of ‘water’, they used cement and concrete. They removed it afterwards, but traces remain”, he claimed.

The Socialist councillor also estimated that the party “cost between six and ten million euros”, although he did not specify the basis for that figure, and added that “there are more than enough reasons to investigate it, although whether there is the will to do so is another matter”.

“Donations are welcome, but they cannot become a VIP pass to secure the use of a public space. Legality cannot be bought with a donation. Using the donations as an excuse is an attempt to circumvent the law. You have turned this Town Council into a private administrative agency for foreigners”, he accused Serra.