Crash puts most of the Spanish election campaign on holdpublished at 14:10 GMT14:10 GMTPaul KirbyEurope Digital Editor Image source, Reuters Caption, Santiago Abascal has not stopped campaigning and has condemned the “deterioration” of Spain’s infrastructure For most Spanish political leaders, the devastating scenes emerging on the high-speed train line south of Toledo mean that the campaign before the general elections on 29 November is currently on hold. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the conservative leader of the Popular Party, considered the favorite in the electoral race, has said that “the priority now is to care for the victims” and the PP has suspended all its campaign activity. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialist PSOE has also canceled its events today, and has given all its “love, solidarity and support” to anyone caught up in the tragedy. But there is no such suspension from politics for Spain’s far-right party Vox, which is seen as a possible coalition partner for Feijóo’s Conservatives following next month’s vote. Santiago Abascal has gone on television to condemn the “deterioration of infrastructure and institutions in Spain, which frankly is totally unbearable” and has blamed the current government, complaining of the “negligence, ruin, betrayal suffered by the Spanish people.” There has yet to be confirmation of the cause of the accident, but Abascal also refused to stop his campaign before a regional vote in January following the Adamuz rail disaster, which claimed 46 lives on the same high-speed line.
