The president of the Government of Aragón, Jorge Azcón, has expressed his "indignation" because, in his opinion, the Government of Spain "is worried about leaking audios instead of attending to the victims who are still in the remains of the trains" that crashed this Wednesday near the station of Urda (Toledo), where 69 deaths have been counted so far.
After taking part in a minute of silence at the doors of the Cortes de Aragón in memory of the deceased and injured people, Azcón has conveyed his condolences to the families and has described "the immense pain that we Aragonians suffer", alluding to a feeling of "sorrow and sadness, but also of solidarity with all the victims, family members and loved ones".
The Aragonese leader has criticized that "the audios that we have seen are being leaked to the media and that are intended to seek excuses and not worry about the victims who are still in the trains in the province of Toledo, produce indignation because the error is not human, the error is political". In his view, "the error has to do with the lack of professionalism, the lack of responsibility and with not having attended the calls that have been made".
Azcón has recalled that this is the second accident in less than a year --after the one in Adamuz in January--, which "not only causes indignation, but also causes rage and frustration and, moreover, unease". He has pointed out that the thousands of Aragonians who use the AVE daily toward Madrid, Barcelona, Calatayud or Lérida want to travel safely and "not have to think about whether, when they get on a train in Aragón, they are gambling with their lives". For this reason, he has called for "safety measures and track inspection measures" immediately.
According to the Aragonese president, "the unease and distress caused by this accident, together with the pain of the loss of human victims, makes it absolutely necessary that responsibilities be assumed; nothing can happen again". He has also underscored that "what is happening in this country is extraordinarily serious" and has insisted that, in addition to accompanying the "pain" and "worrying about the victims", it is necessary to ask oneself "what is happening so that two fatal accidents occur in one year when the railway system in this country was the envy of many countries in Europe".
Consternation in the Cortes de Aragón
In the same event, the president of the Cortes de Aragón, María Navarro, intervened, who conveyed the shock of the regional Parliament at the railway accident. She explained that "today we held a minute of silence as a sign of pain and solidarity with the relatives of the victims, the friends, the loved ones, and also our gratitude to all the emergency services that are still working tirelessly".
Navarro emphasized that "Aragón is a supportive territory and we are profoundly broken with pain over what happened yesterday in Toledo". Numerous authorities attended the minute of silence, among them the mayors of Zaragoza and Teruel, Natalia Chueca and Emma Buj; the Justicia de Aragón, Concepción Gimeno; the vice president of the Government of Aragón, Mar Vaquero, and other members of the regional Executive, as well as the general secretary of the PSOE and spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group, Pilar Alegría, together with other deputies of the Cortes de Aragón.