The Partido Popular has tightened its criticisms of the Government this Friday after it became known that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened a new investigation into the possible fraudulent use of EU funds earmarked for the Madrid–Seville high-speed rail line. The PP’s deputy secretary for Health and Social Policy, Carmen Fúnez, has linked the alleged irregularities to the rail accidents in Adamuz (Córdoba) and Urda (Toledo), while the PP spokesperson in Congress, Ester Muñoz, has politically blamed Pedro Sánchez for the management of the Ministry of Transport.
"Corruption has taken human lives away," Fúnez said during remarks to the media after taking part in the Europe Press health and social breakfast events. The PP leader believes that the opening of the proceedings is "sufficient cause for Sánchez to leave government as soon as possible," although she has acknowledged that it will be necessary to wait to learn the results of the investigation.
The inquiries by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office seek to clarify possible irregularities in the use of European funds earmarked for actions on the Madrid–Seville line. For the moment, it has not been established that there is a connection between the alleged fraud being investigated and the causes of the rail accidents, which continue to be the subject of their respective investigations.
Fúnez denounces that the line was not improved after the Adamuz accident
The PP deputy secretary criticized that, after the Adamuz accident last January, in which 46 people died, what she considers the necessary improvements to the Madrid–Andalusia high-speed line were not carried out. Nine months later, the collision of two trains in Urda caused another 69 deaths.
Fúnez has linked both incidents to what she considers poor management of railway infrastructure and has reproached the Executive Branch for the lack of new General State Budgets.
"When the General State Budgets are not approved, when there is no action with rigor and professionalism in the sphere of public management, corruption and lack of management appear," she said.
The PP leader also said that between 2024 and 2025 projects worth 52,000 million euros were left unexecuted and has argued that an investment of 1,000 million in the AVE line to Andalusia would have made it possible to reinforce the infrastructure.
"To think that the Government has stopped executing 52,000 million seems like waste that has taken many lives along with it," he has insisted. This is Fúnez's assessment, without it having been demonstrated that this alleged lack of budget execution bears any causal relationship to the accidents.
Ester Muñoz asks the PSOE whether it will also "attack" the European Public Prosecutor's Office
For its part, the PP spokesperson in Congress, Ester Muñoz, has questioned the reaction that the PSOE will have to the new proceedings of the European Public Prosecutor's Office. In an interview on Antena 3, she asked whether the socialists are going to "attack" this body as well for investigating whether European funds intended for railway infrastructure may have been embezzled.
Muñoz has linked this issue to statements made last Monday by the PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, who spoke of the "coincidence" that, when the PSOE starts to "show its head," someone appears who wants to harm it.
Those words came after a new operation by the Guardia Civil linked to the Koldo case, which included searches, six arrests, and requests for documentation from Adif.
"Unfortunately, for a long time we have been seeing how, when press reports come out about corruption in the PSOE or around Pedro Sánchez, there are always attacks first on the media, then on the judges when the instructions begin," Muñoz said.
The popular spokesperson added that, even after some convictions, talk has still reached "judicial blows." "I don't know whether now they are also going to attack the European Public Prosecutor's Office," she concluded.
The PP holds Sánchez responsible for appointments in Transport
Muñoz considers that the European investigation represents a "new burden on the emotional state of a nation that is wounded" because of the two railway accidents.
The deputy has accused the Ministry of Transport of having devoted resources to alleged corrupt practices instead of ensuring the proper functioning of the public service. She has also reviewed the appointments made by Sánchez at the head of the department, with criticism of José Luis Ábalos, Raquel Sánchez, and Óscar Puente.
About Ábalos, he has recalled his political proximity to the president of the Government. To Raquel Sánchez he has attributed responsibility for the case of the metre-gauge trains whose dimensions prevented their circulation through certain tunnels, while he has reproached Puente for his announcements about the increase in the speed of high-speed trains.
"Those three people who have been placed by Pedro Sánchez, therefore, Pedro Sánchez is responsible for everything that we are learning," he concluded.
The statements from the PP arrive three days after Óscar Puente announced his resignation as Transport minister, after appearing before the Standing Committee of the Congress to explain the circumstances of the Urda accident.