Should Rafa Ruiz resign? From fights in the street and in the plenary sessions to the dock of the accused

The former socialist mayor of Ibiza, former secretary general of the socialist group of Ibiza and spokesman of the Socialist Group in the City Council of Ibiza, Rafa Ruiz, must resign from the position he still holds. This, at least, is determined without any doubt by the Code of Ethics and Conduct of the Socialist Party approved by the Federal Committee of the PSOE on March 18, 2023.

• Rafa Ruiz and Juan Marí to the dock for the rigging in favor of Club Náutico de Ibiza for which they are asking 37 million euros.

The document states that once a court order is issued to open an oral trial, as has happened in the case of ports, the imputed socialist militant “must apply for voluntary withdrawal as a member and resign from his position”. While the PSOE of Formentera has resorted to the retained report of the Ethics Code Commission to end up articulating the motion of censure that will head off Llorenç Cordoba, the Socialist Federation of Ibiza must decide whether to apply its own in the event that Ruiz does not do it motu proprio. Of this, neither the protagonist nor the party have been showing signs anyway.

Delirious justification by Rafa Ruiz

In the municipal plenary of October, already known the brief of the Prosecutor, Rafa Ruiz resorted to a delirious explanation to justify his role in the operation designed for the Club Náutico Ibiza to retain the concession.“I hope not to have any conviction for having defended a social port that is not full of mega yachts, as this Plenary unanimously asked me”.

• Rafa Ruiz forgets that he is accused of a millionaire rigging in Ibiza: “I hope not to be convicted for having defended a social port that is not full of megayachts”.

Days later, the Socialist Federation of Ibiza came to his defense in a statement in which it not only defended Ruiz’s actions, but also expressly requested that the case be closed or that the former mayor be acquitted.

• PSOE demands the exoneration of Rafa Ruiz in the ‘ports case’.

Be that as it may, Ruiz faces three years in prison for a continuous crime of embezzlement for the rigging of the Club Náutico de Ibiza. This crime is not, however, in the list of those that entail expulsion from the party in the event that he does not resign voluntarily: bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement, gender violence, crimes of harassment or discrimination, against sexual freedom and indemnity, torture or against moral integrity. For cases of corruption, the precautionary suspension of militancy is automatic if there is an oral trial.

• Rafa Ruiz, on the verge of resignation due to the ‘ports case’.

“In the event that a public or organic office holder is acquitted by a final judgment of the crimes imputed to him or her in criminal proceedings, the Party undertakes to take the necessary measures to restore the good name and honor of the acquitted person,” the Code details.

Vicent Roselló: “If necessary we will see”.

The new secretary general of the Socialist Federation of Ibiza, Vicent Roselló, avoided, in an interview with La Voz de Ibiza, to pronounce openly on this issue. “When the time comes we will see. It is true that there is a Code of Ethics but we have to see what the accusation is, if it arrives. In the meantime, I think that these are considerations that at this moment harm more than benefit.” “I have not read the order (of Judge Martina Mora) itself but I have had access to passages and I have information. We have to wait”, is what Roselló said in October.

Street brawl

The indictment was announced shortly after the socialist spokesman in the City Council of Ibiza starred in a new street fight with a citizen. In this case, according to Diario de Ibiza, it was due to a traffic incident between Rafa Ruiz, who was riding his motorcycle, and a car driver in the neighborhood of Can Escandell. According to the newspaper that cites eyewitnesses, the mayor out of his mind and in a violent attitude came to push the driver of the vehicle. “Hit me if you want, I’m not going to hit you,” the driver of the car reportedly told him.

Rafa Ruiz: it’s raining on wet ground

It is not the first time that Ruiz is involved in a street brawl. To his credit, in March 2023, a few months before the last elections and, therefore, being mayor, he slapped a controller of the municipal contract that manages the blue zone for having dared to fine him for parking his motorcycle in the area reserved for cars. In May 2020, while he was also mayor, he staged another incident with a merchant in the Marina neighborhood. Ruiz got off his motorcycle to rebuke Joan Tur, from Discos Delta. “Coward, let’s see if you stop insulting me in the networks”, denounced at the time the assaulted. Subsequently, he continued the invective and threatened him to abide by the consequences. A witness to the incident then declared to have been shocked, “hallucinated”. “People came out of the balcony and everything.”

Brawls in Vila’s plenary sessions

Added to this are the usual outbursts of tone of the socialist spokesman in the plenary sessions of the City Council of Ibiza. One of the last cases was a disproportionate attack on the businessman Pedro Matutes, whom he called “cacique”, “privileged”, “selfish” who “thinks he is the owner of Ibiza”, without any reason.

• Rafa Ruiz, unleashed against Pedro Matutes, the owner of the Pereyra Theater: “Cacique”, “privileged”, “selfish” who “thinks he owns Ibiza”.

In an interview published in La Voz de Ibiza, the Councilor for Mobility and Tourism, Ruben Sousa, said in this regard that “he always wants to say the last word and he no longer has it because he is not the mayor and he has to assume it”.

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• “Rafa Ruiz always wants to have the last word and he has to assume that he no longer has it because the city did not want him as mayor.”