Social networks are burning against Óscar Puente after the Toledo accident over a video in which he joked about Renfe breakdowns

As of October 28, 2026, the main parliamentary investigation into the Adamuz and Gelida accidents is the one conducted by the Senate, whose work was interrupted and expired with the dissolution of the Cortes on October 6. In the Congress, there are hearings and oversight actions, but no specific investigative commission constituted on these incidents has been located. It is important to separate both paths from the technical investigations, which do not depend on the continuity of the legislature.

Senate: approved investigation, with hearings until October

The Plenary approved on February 18, 2026 the creation of the Investigation Commission on the state of the railway network in Spain. Its scope included the Adamuz accident of January 18 and Gelida of January 20, as well as the general situation of the infrastructures. The approval is recorded in the official Senate information.

The commission thus passed the proposal phase and carried out an effective investigation. Among the documented milestones are:

• April 27: Ignacio Barrón de Angoiti, president of the Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF), and Luis Pedro Marco de la Peña, president of Adif and Adif-High Speed, appeared. This is confirmed by the Senate.
• April 30: Álvaro Fernández Heredia, president of Renfe, and Diego Martín Fernández, general secretary of the train drivers' union SEMAF, intervened, according to the Chamber communication.
• May 25: Mario Samper Pereira, president of the Adamuz Derailment Victims Association, appeared to report on the accident, according to the official news.
• September 21 and 24: Rocío Báguena Rodríguez, former president of the State Railway Safety Agency, and Amandine Thomas-Commin, general director of OUIGO Spain, respectively, testified. Communications about Báguena and OUIGO are recorded.
• October 5: Fabrizio Favara, CEO of Iryo, appeared. This is the last session located in the consulted sources, documented by the Senate.

No final report of conclusions approved before the dissolution is recorded in the consulted sources. The Royal Decree 806/2026 dissolved both Chambers on October 6: the pending parliamentary work expired. Therefore, it is not appropriate to describe this commission as currently active nor to present its hearings as an ongoing schedule.

Congress: parliamentary oversight, no specific commission

The Lower House addressed the accidents through hearings, questions, and requests for documentation. Óscar Puente reported before the Transport Commission on February 3, as recorded in the Session Diary. Pedro Sánchez appeared before the Plenary on February 11, according to the intervention published by Moncloa.

These actions do not equate to constituting an investigative commission. Parliamentary requests that were still pending also expired with the dissolution; the hearings already held remain as records of the oversight performed.

What is excluded from this expiration

Technical investigations seek to clarify causes and prevent new accidents, not to determine political responsibilities. The CIAF opened the Adamuz investigation in January, according to Demócrata. This administrative path does not expire due to parliamentary dissolution.

The draft law on aid to the victims of Adamuz and Gelida also expired on October 6, but it was not an investigation. In summary, there was effective parliamentary investigation in the Senate and oversight in the Congress; the former is no longer open after the dissolution, while the technical investigation follows an independent path.

The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility directs the Government's policy on transport and infrastructures of state competence, as well as promoting sustainable mobility. Their powers combine the general functions of any minister with the matters specifically assigned to their department. It is important to distinguish between leading and being responsible for the Ministry and personally exercising each administrative competence: many correspond to subordinate bodies.

1. Political direction and ministerial responsibility

Article 4 of the Law 50/1997, of the Government establishes that ministers have "competence and responsibility in the specific sphere of their action." In Transport, this means:

• Developing government action in the department's matters, following the agreements of the Council of Ministers and the guidelines of the Prime Minister.
• Exercising regulatory power within their competence scope.
• Performing other powers assigned by laws and organizational rules.
• Endorsing, when appropriate, the acts of the King related to their competences.

2. Matters they direct

Article 1 of the Royal Decree 253/2024, of March 12, assigns the Ministry the proposal and execution of government policy in the following areas:

• Transport infrastructures: land, air, and maritime of state competence, along with the planning and programming of the corresponding investments.
• Transport services: control, ordering, and administrative regulation of the services included in those state competences.
• Sustainable mobility: promotion of its social, economic, and environmental dimensions, including active mobility, aiming to guarantee safe mobility based on social justice criteria.
• Postal services: normative regulation of these services.
• Geographic and scientific information: promotion and direction of state services of astronomy, geodesy, geophysics, and cartography.

Therefore, their scope is not limited to public works: it also includes services, regulation, sustainability, and certain state scientific functions.

3. Rules and decisions they can promote

According to articles 4 and 24 of the Government Law, they can issue ministerial orders in matters within their competence. These are subordinate to provisions approved by royal decree. This power should not be confused with decisions reserved for the Council of Ministers.

The minister can promote normative proposals from their department, but the approval of bills, royal decree-laws, and regulations corresponding to the Council belongs to that collegiate body, according to article 5. They also cannot individually assume decisions that a norm reserves for other bodies.

4. Organization, planning, and execution

The minister directly oversees the Secretariat of State for Transport and Sustainable Mobility and the Undersecretariat. They also have an immediate support Cabinet. The Secretariat of State acts under their direction and develops functions of strategic planning, investment programming, infrastructure execution, coordination of bodies, and monitoring of their management.

This distribution allows the minister to guide general policy, while competent bodies carry out its administrative development. It includes territorial cooperation actions, intermodality —connection between different means of transport— and promotion of plans and aids for sustainable mobility.

5. International relations and limits

The Subdirectorate General of International Relations depends directly on the minister and coordinates the department's international relations and representation, especially before the European Union, in collaboration with Foreign Affairs.

The fundamental limit is that the powers refer to state competences and must be exercised in coordination, without prejudice to those corresponding to other ministries. They do not constitute, therefore, a general authority over any transport or infrastructure in Spain.

Before being appointed Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility in November 2023, Óscar Puente had combined two decades of legal practice with a political career focused on Valladolid. He was a councilor, led the municipal opposition, and governed the city for eight years. At the same time, he took on responsibilities within the PSOE, including the federal spokesperson role, and in July 2023 he entered Congress.

Education and professional trajectory

Born in Valladolid on November 15, 1968, Puente graduated in Law from the University of Valladolid and completed a master's degree in Political Management at the Jaime Vera Foundation. He practiced law between 1995 and June 2015, when he left professional practice to assume the Mayor's office. Therefore, during his first years as a councilor, he combined municipal activity with his legal profession, according to his official biography.

He also had a professional stage linked to theater: he worked as an actor between 1988 and 1999. This was an activity prior to and partially simultaneous with his studies and the start of his legal career, although the latter was his main occupation before fully dedicating himself to municipal management. His professional trajectory is also listed in his Congress profile.

Early steps in the PSOE and municipal opposition

His socialist membership began in 1990. In 2000 he ran, without being elected, for the General Secretariat of the PSOE of Valladolid. In 2004 he accessed the Deputy General Secretariat of the Provincial Executive, one of his first prominent organizational positions, as recorded by Nueva Economía Fórum.

In 2007 he was elected councilor and, in 2008, assumed the presidency of the Socialist Municipal Group after Soraya Rodríguez's departure. He thus led the opposition to Mayor Francisco Javier León de la Riva. In 2009 he became general secretary of the Municipal Executive of the PSOE, a responsibility he held until December 2021. That month he was elected provincial general secretary, according to the Ministry biography.

Mayor of Valladolid between 2015 and 2023

In June 2015 he reached the Mayor's office through an agreement with other municipal forces, although the PP had been the most voted candidacy. His investiture ended twenty years of popular governments. In 2019 he renewed the position after the PSOE won the elections, as reconstructed by Demócrata.

During his two terms, he promoted sustainable mobility actions, public transport, expansion of bike lanes, and low-emission vehicles. This municipal experience was the most directly related antecedent to the portfolio he would later assume, as explained by this biographical profile.

Additionally, he presided over the Spanish Network of Healthy Cities of the FEMP between November 2015 and December 2019; was a member of its Governing Board from September 2019 to May 2023, and a representative in the Urban Initiatives Network between October 2020 and May 2023, according to his official curriculum.

National projection and arrival at Congress

Between June 2017 and October 2021 he was spokesperson of the Federal Executive Commission of the PSOE, combining that role with the Mayor's office. In May 2023, the PSOE was again the most voted force in Valladolid, but the agreement between PP and Vox allowed Jesús Julio Carnero to be invested. Puente left the Mayor's office in June and obtained a seat for Valladolid in the July general elections, according to Demócrata.

In September he spoke for the PSOE in the investiture debate of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, an episode that increased his national visibility. Two months later he arrived at the Ministry: his previous experience was fundamentally legal, municipal, and party leadership, with a still brief parliamentary stage.