A high-profile legal development has unfolded in Spain, where José Manuel Entrecanales, the long-serving chairman of major construction and infrastructure giant Acciona, has been ordered to make a personal court appearance in Pamplona on September 4. The judicial action comes after Entrecanales skipped two scheduled hearings for a parliamentary investigative committee tasked with examining public contract awards in the region of Navarre.
The sequence of events began earlier this year, when Entrecanales was first called to give evidence before the Navarre Parliament’s investigative committee on January 20, and again on February 9. On both occasions, he declined to attend in person. Instead, Acciona dispatched two senior executives — Joaquín Mollinedo, the firm’s Director of Institutional Relations, Communication and Brand, and José Julio Figueroa — to stand in for its leader. The company also submitted formal written documentation challenging the legal validity of the committee’s summons to Entrecanales, arguing it did not align with existing regulations governing parliamentary investigations.
Parliamentary officials rejected this position, however, explicitly warning Entrecanales that neither written submissions nor proxy appearances by company representatives would satisfy the requirement for his personal testimony. After the committee concluded its work, the Bureau of the Parliament of Navarre voted in March to refer the entire case to public prosecutors, citing Entrecanales’ failure to comply with the official parliamentary summons.
Prosecutors have since upheld the challenge to Entrecanales’ absence, concluding that there was no legally sufficient justification for his repeated non-appearance. That decision cleared the way for formal judicial proceedings to move forward, resulting in the September 4 court summons issued this week.
The latest court order arrives as Acciona continues to face heightened scrutiny across Spain. The company has already been named in ongoing investigations led by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Spanish Civil Guard, though no formal charges have been announced in connection to that probe. Beyond its domestic operations, Acciona is also the lead contractor for one of the Dominican Republic’s most high-profile infrastructure projects: the construction of a new international airport in Cabo Rojo, Pedernales, a core component of the Caribbean nation’s flagship national tourism development strategy.
The upcoming September hearing will focus on determining whether Entrecanales’ non-compliance warrants any legal penalties, marking a key milestone in a case that underscores the tension between corporate leadership obligations and parliamentary oversight of public contracting.