(ATR) Madrid 2020 bid organizers expect no complications from the strike planned by Iberia workers March 18-22, the dates the IOC Evaluation Commission comes to inspect the bid.
The strike in March is one of three planned by the union to protest job cuts. Hundreds of flights were cancelled last week after the first strike; more than 1,400 flights are cancelled ahead of the second strike planned next week.
A mediator is making the rounds to try to broker a settlement of the dispute.
The timing of the strike for the IOC visit is coincidental. The nine-member commission will arrive in Madrid a couple of days before the strike begins. The group departs to Istanbul after the strike concludes.
Scandal Brushes 2016 Bid
The previous bid from Madrid is now linked to the scandal over the financial dealings of Inaki Urdangarin, married to Infanta Cristina, the youngest daughter of the King and Queen of Spain.
The 45-year-old Duke of Palma, an Olympian in handball, is facing questioning about public monies that helped fund his sports-related Noos Foundation. He and an associate could face embezzlement charges involving millions of euros. He has denied wrongdoing.
Hundreds of protestors turned out to jeer Urdangarin earlier in the week when he testified behind closed doors at a court in Palma Mallorca.
Investigators say that Noos received payments from Madrid 2016 totaling 144,000 euros. The money was said to have been intended to assist in lobbying for the Madrid bid. Madrid mayor Ana Botella says no public funds were used in the payments to Noos, occurring from 2007 to 2009, before she took office. The payments were said to be authorized by bid CEO Mercedes Coghen with the knowledge of then-mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon.
Gallardon, now Spanish Minister of Justice, defended Coghen as trying to do what was best for the 2016 bid.
No connection has been made with the current Olympic bid from Madrid.
Urdangarin was cut off from contact with the royal family in December. Whether King Juan Carlos was aware of his son-in-law’s dealings is a matter of intense speculation in the press.
The King is expected to host the IOC delegation during the visit to Madrid next month.
Reported by Ed Hula
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