A new phase of the Koldo case has moved to the centre of Spain's general election campaign, nine days after the Urda rail disaster and three weeks before voters go to the polls on 29 November. The Guardia Civil's Central Operative Unit (UCO) carried out a fresh operation within the case, which ended with six people detained and later released, according to RTVE.es. The operation also led to a search of the home of former transport minister José Luis Ábalos, who is currently in prison, and to a formal request for Adif Alta Velocidad to hand over information on contracts alleged to have been rigged.
Why it matters
The timing places a corruption investigation and a transport emergency at the heart of the campaign. RTVE.es reports that the UCO's move has become the main focus of the pre-campaign period. Separately, the European Public Prosecutor's Office has opened a second investigation into suspected fraud involving EU funds on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line, a development reported by elDiario.es, El Periódico and COPE. The scrutiny now touches both the political figures linked to the Koldo case and the state rail infrastructure manager itself.
A second European fraud inquiry on the Madrid-Seville line
According to El Periódico, the European Public Prosecutor's Office has launched the second investigation on its own initiative, examining suspected fraud on the Madrid-Seville high-speed route. COPE reports that this second inquiry concerns works on safety and signalling along that line, and possible misuse of European Union money. elDiario.es links the new file to the fallout from the Urda accident, describing it as another fraud investigation into high-speed rail.
The same outlet, elDiario.es, reported earlier that the European Public Prosecutor's Office had opened an investigation into fraud on the high-speed network following the Urda crash. The precise scope of the two files, and how they relate to one another, has not been set out in the reporting summarised here.
ABC adds a further strand: the UCO is examining Adif's contract with the supplier of stone for the AVE, a company that reportedly paid a salary to the wife of Koldo. The name Koldo refers to Koldo García, a former adviser to Ábalos, whose name has become shorthand for the case. The reporting does not specify the value of the contracts under review, nor the identities of the six people detained and released.
Strike talks and the aftermath in Urda
On the rail system itself, the new transport minister, Carlos Cuerpo, was due to meet train drivers again on Friday in an attempt to head off strikes planned for the coming days, RTVE.es reports. The outlet notes that the unions see a deal as difficult to reach. The talks come nine days after the accident in Urda, in which 69 people died.
Recovery work at the site continues. RTVE.es reports that damaged carriages are still being removed from Urda, and that the remains of 66 of the deceased have been returned to their families. The reporting does not give a reason for the difference between the number of deaths and the number of bodies handed back.
What to watch
The immediate tests are whether Cuerpo can avert the planned strikes and how quickly Adif Alta Velocidad responds to the UCO's request for contract records. Both will play out against a campaign in which the Koldo case and the state of the railways are now central themes, with voting set for 29 November.
