"I think they need to explain to us from A to Z what happened to cause such a catastrophic accident with so many dead and injured. It can't be that everything just collapsed here."
"Isn't this conspiracy theory?" Cintora responded, referring to the mention of Israel.
Villarroya said: "No, it isn't. I'm not saying that people have provoked anything, but threats have come from Israel. I receive information from that shadowy world, which is rarely wrong, and they tell me things.”
Cintora pushed back again, saying: “I find it serious that you point the finger at Israel and then don't specify.”
[Missing Credit]
Villarroya said: “There are people in the Israeli government who have threatened Spain... Or are we idiots? I'm not saying that Israel provoked this; I'm saying that the companies providing security for the AVE high-speed train are Israeli . The main one is French but with Israeli capital, and the subcontractor for the Madrid-Andalusia line is an Israeli company that also handles security for Nato and the Spanish National Police and Civil Guard.”
The university professor then reiterated that "members of the Israeli government have threatened Spain".
Interrupting him, Cintora said: "I don't see how one thing connects to the other." He went on to change the subject.
Villarroya also posted his theory on X the day after the crash. He wrote: “Alongside the neoliberal policy of privatising the high-speed train and the complete lack of investment in improving infrastructure, we must also consider the companies managing the safety systems that have failed – curiously, Israeli ones or those with Israeli capital.”
The Israeli Embassy in Spain said it was “unacceptable” that the TV station had hosted “in the middle of a tragedy, libels and lies against Israel, without any kind of information or data.”
Ángel Mas, founder of the Spanish pro-Israel group ACOM, also condemned the conspiracy theories, saying antisemitism united elements of the far left and far right. He vowed to take legal action against those spreading them.
RTVE subsequently published a fact-check rejecting allegations of Israeli involvement.
