The first vice president and Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, has reiterated that "there is no forecast to close right now" the high-speed connection between Madrid and Barcelona, after his predecessor at the head of Transport, Óscar Puente, suggested the possibility of temporarily suspending the service.
"That is an element that I want to make clear from now on," Cuerpo emphasized in an interview with La Séptima, as reported by Europa Press, stressing that the "number one priority" is to "recover trust" and "guarantee safety" on the line linking Madrid with Andalusia.
The minister explained that the "recovery" tasks will begin as soon as the judge authorizes Adif to start those works, following the railway incident of last October 28 in Urda (Toledo), in which 69 people died and which led Puente to submit his resignation this Tuesday as minister and to renounce appearing on the Socialist lists for the 29-N.
Regarding his predecessor, Cuerpo defended that the departure of the former minister was due to the desire to "assume" the "responsibility" and "take charge of the situation," something, in his view, that "citizens must demand" from their "political representatives." "That is the correct way to do politics," he insisted.
Along these lines, he described Puente’s exit as "correct" though "difficult." He also specified that this Wednesday the former person in charge of Adif made his position available to the Ministry because "he could not allow himself not to assume that responsibility with two accidents" and "with fatalities."