Pedro Sánchez has called for Óscar Puente’s resignation this Friday in Valencia after the train accident in Urda (Toledo) and has reproached the PP and Vox for not acting in the same way when they have to answer for their management. The head of the Government has returned to the pre-election campaign before 2,500 people who have filled the Cabanyal-Canyamelar sports hall, while dozens of attendees remained outside the venue, according to the organizers. The event began with a tribute to the victims of Urda and continued with harsh criticism from Socialist leaders of the DANA management by the PP.
"We stood up to it with absolute transparency and we assumed political responsibility with the resignation of a great politician like Óscar Puente", Sánchez defended, who devoted part of his remarks to the Government’s response to the train accident of last October 28.
The president reproached the PP and Vox for demanding the resignation of the Transport minister and, after he left office, for continuing their criticism. "The exercise of dignity that Puente carried out, they don’t practice in any crisis that they have had to manage," he said.
The comparison between the response of the central Executive to the Urda accident and the management of the Valencian Government during the DANA has run through the speeches at the rally. "Valencia is the clearest example that we are not the same," Pilar Bernabé proclaimed, while among the attendees shouts of "Mazón to prison" could be heard.
Sánchez defends Puente’s resignation after the Urda accident
The head of the Government has begun his reflection on political responsibilities with recognition for those who took part in providing care to the victims of the train accident.
"The strength of a country is what joins together in the face of tragedy," Sánchez said, who recalled the civic mobilization after the incident.
"In the tragedy of Urda, I was moved to see how citizens threw themselves into it by donating blood, the healthcare professionals who called off the strike to care for the victims," he pointed out.
Next, he linked that civic response to the obligation of public officials to provide explanations. "The strength of a Government is how it responds to those tragedies", he defended.
Sánchez has assured that his Executive has accompanied the victims and has acted with transparency during the days following the accident. "We were with the victims of the Urda accident, we have faced it with absolute transparency and we have assumed political responsibility with the resignation of a great politician like Óscar Puente," he has said.
Puente announced his resignation on 3 November last, after appearing before the Permanent Delegation of the Congress to explain the circumstances of the train accident, which left 69 dead.
The president has defended the decision of the former minister against criticism from the opposition. As he has reproached, the PP and Vox demanded his departure from the Government and, once it had been presented, they also questioned the resignation. "The exercise of dignity that Puente has carried out, they do not practice it in any crisis they have had to manage," he has insisted.
A bath of the masses in Valencia with La Fúmiga
The rally began with the Cabanyal-Canyamelar sports hall full and long lines at its entrances. The organizers have estimated the capacity of the venue at around 2,500 people and have said that dozens of attendees were unable to get in.
Music accompanied the wait. Among the chosen songs, Que nadie nos pare, by ElyElla, and Desátame, by Mónica Naranjo, were played. Also Llavors, by La Fúmiga, whose refrain, "Com no te vaig a estimar, com no te vaig a estimar... País Valencià", added a Valencian reference to the act's soundtrack.
La Fúmiga recently said goodbye to the stages after offering two concerts at the Roig Arena, a circumstance that has given special relevance to the choice of its music.
Before the political interventions, attendees observed a minute of silence for the victims of the Urda accident. After that, Ángela Cervantes and Israel Sandoval performed live Si tú no estás aquí, by Rosana, in Spanish and Valencian.
Among the crowd, a full tier of teachers stood out wearing green shirts in defense of public education and in support of the sector's strike. Pilar Bernabé wanted to address them at the beginning of her speech: "Thank you for giving dignity to public school".
Bernabé: "Never again will Valencia turn its back on the neighbors who suffered the DANA"
The head of the Socialist list to the Congress for Valencia, Pilar Bernabé, opened the interventions with a speech focused on the DANA and on the response of the administrations to the victims.
"Never again will Valencia turn its back on the neighbors who suffered in the towns affected by the DANA, as the one who is still mayor has done," he has stated, referring to Valencia mayor, María José Catalá. Bernabé went further and accompanied his criticisms with a promise: "I promise you, as the next mayor of Valencia".
He also thanked Sánchez for his actions during the emergency. "We want to tell you thank you, president, because you are the one who truly took charge," he said. "Thank you for doing something that nobody did; you were the only president who received those whom today the PP still insults, the families of the victims of the DANA," he added.
The socialist leader also praised the presence of Valencians in the central Executive and thanked Sánchez for having, in her words, "the most Valencian Government in history".
Bernabé then explained why the PSOE had chosen Valencia for the president’s return to the pre-campaign. "They asked us a lot: why Valencia? Because Valencia is the clearest example that we are not the same. We don’t even have to tell them; people know," he said.
During his speech, part of the attendees began to chant "Mazón to prison", referring to the former president of the Generalitat Valenciana Carlos Mazón.
Morant: "El Ventorro is a political category"
The Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities and general secretary of the PSPV-PSOE, Diana Morant, continued with criticism of the Valencian PP and responded to statements by Alberto Núñez Feijóo about the need for a political change in the community.
"Feijóo came and said that this community is the one that needs a change the most. Indeed, Feijóo, we need to get you out of the Government and of the Consell," she said.
Morant also claimed Bernabé’s actions during the DANA. "We are not the same. Pilar Bernabé has shown what it means to be there, in good times and bad, from the beginning to the end. Thank you, Pilar", she said.
The socialist leader turned to the El Ventorro restaurant, where Carlos Mazón ate on the day of the DANA, to question the PP’s political response to that tragedy.
"And what do we have opposite? When the elections were announced, many of us asked who from El Ventorro Feijóo is going to put at the head of the list of the Partido Popular," she quipped.
Morant has added that "El Ventorro is a political category", with which he has identified those who, according to what he has denounced, were "clapping for a year for Mazón". "But we will get there and we will make Mazón submit to Justice at last," he has assured.
The PSOE secretary of Organization, Rebeca Torró, also went up onstage, although she was barely able to speak because she had lost her voice. "I can’t speak, but I can’t help saying two things to you. The first is that I love you, and the second I’ll tell you as secretary of Organization: we are going to win and we are going to govern," she proclaimed.
Sánchez, against Trump and Milei: "Spain is governed from Spain"
In his speech, Sánchez also directed his criticisms at the international far right and called for the mobilization of the progressive electorate ahead of the general elections on November 29.
The president used the slogan of the rally, "The force of a country", to defend hope as a political argument. "The force of a country is the force of hope, the power to think that what is to come will always be better," he said.
Sánchez defended that Spain has been an international reference for maintaining a progressive Government during the advance of the forces of the far right. "For many other countries in the world we have been a beacon that has shown that hope is much stronger than hate," he pointed out.
The president mentioned the electoral results of Brazil and the United States to insist on the importance of going to the polls. "We already see what has happened in Brazil, in the United States. If for all these years Spain has advanced during the worst of the far-right wave, on the next 29 we are not going to take a step back," he proclaimed.
Sánchez then directed an express message to the presidents of Argentina and the United States, Javier Milei and Donald Trump. "To the one with the chainsaw or the one from Washington, I invite you so that on the next November 29 we tell them that Spain is governed from Spain," he said.
"We are not going to allow our country to become the back yard of any international far-right organization," he added. The socialist leader stressed that "mobilization is the formula", in reference to the electoral victories of progressive forces in Brazil and the United States.
With these calls for a vote and the defense of Puente’s resignation, Sánchez has resumed the pre-campaign in Valencia, a city chosen by the PSOE to set his management of emergencies against that of the PP and recover electoral activity after the rail tragedy in Urda.