The Provincial Court of Palma has ordered to continue the proceedings against the president of the Consell de Ibiza, Vicent Marí, for the case linked to the tourist campaign “La Vida Islados” and for the coercion denounced by the financial controller of the institution, after revoking the provisional dismissal issued by the Court of Instruction number 4 of Ibiza in December 2024.
The Chamber has partiallyupheld the appeals filed by the PSOE and by the comptroller, and holds that the procedure should continue to clarify issues related to the award of the contract and to analyze the block of coercion denounced.
This is reported in the order dated December 22, 2025. The order narrows the debate: on the one hand, it does not focus the reproach on the context of the health emergency; on the other hand, it focuses on the minimum controls required and on the post-award documentation. In this context, the Chamber ruled out that the use of the emergency procedure, on its own, would support criminal liability, but kept the case alive because of the way it was handled and the coercion alleged.
According to legal sources quoted by Europa Press, the court must now transfer to the parties to submit their briefs of provisional qualification and, with that step, decide whether to proceed with the opening of oral proceedings.
The award, at the center
The case dates back to the summer of 2020, when the Consell awarded a contract of 250,000 euros for a tourism promotion campaign in the midst of crisis by COVID-19. The award went to Fuera de Escena SL, and the resolution stresses that, once the emergency procedure has been chosen, essential formalities must be respected to avoid arbitrariness.
In its reasoning, the Chamber indicates that, unlike other contracts processed under similar conditions during the pandemic, in this case there is no evidence of comparison with market prices, and argues that there is evidence of an award “without following the essential steps of the administrative procedure”, so that the case should continue.
The Provincial Court’s brief states: “Whether or not the personal relationships existing between Mr. Vicent Marí and the people who formed part of the company had a direct relationship with the awarding of the contract will be a matter to be elucidated during the oral trial”.
In the same vein, the PSOE argues that the court considers that there is “sufficient evidence for the case to continue”, and stress that the order mentions the need to clarify part of the documentation subsequent to the award.
Coercion denounced by the financial controller
The procedure also continues for the facts denounced by the auditor, who attributes to Marí alleged coercion and harassment. In its communiqué, the PSOE states that the court considers that it is not just a statement, but that the complaint would be supported by documentation and elements to be assessed in the course of the proceedings.
The private accusation, exercised by the lawyer David Salvà on behalf of the auditor, intends to attribute to Marí crimes of influence peddling, prevarication, psychological injuries and coercion, and to request prison sentences.
On the other hand, the same legal sources quoted by Europa Press point out that, if the case goes to trial, it will probably be held at the Provincial Court of Palma.
Political reactions
The PSOE has demanded the immediate resignation of the island president. The socialist spokeswoman in the Consell, Elena López Bonet, has described the matter as “the most serious case that the Consell Insular has ever experienced” and argues that the continuity of the procedure prevents presenting the resolution as a closure of the case.
He also charges against what he describes as an attempt by the PP to “make up” the situation by emphasizing that the court endorses the emergency contract. López Bonet has said that “neither the PSOE nor anyone else has ever questioned the emergency situation that was experienced during the Covid”, but the way the contract was processed and whether the procedure was used to favor someone.
For its part, the Consell has emphasized that the Audiencia endorses the emergency procedure used in 2020, which, according to the institution, discredits the thesis that placed in that point the core of the complaint.
In addition, the insular institution has recalled that the Court of Instruction number 4 provisionally filed the case on the understanding that the intervention of the president “was made in accordance with the Law, based on technical reports”. and with decisions that could have been appealed and were not. He also emphasizes that the Prosecutor’s Office took a position against the appeals presented by the PSOE and by the private complainant, endorsing the provisional archive defended by the instructor.
The Consell has said that it will continue to collaborate with justice in all that is required and framed the hiring in the context of 2020, when Ibiza came to be weeks without tourists, with “total unemployment” of the economic engine, insisting that the institution sought solutions to recover activity and employment.
The PP, meanwhile, has supported Vicent Marí and has described as “artificial” the case “La Vida Islados”. In fact, the “great scandal” that some were selling, has ended up being a trial to settle whether the date of a budget is earlier or later. It has been shown that every time a court takes this case, it is becoming smaller and smaller, purifying the alleged crimes that, according to the socialists, had given the complainants,” have remarked the popular in a statement.
