El PP and Vox have again demanded this Tuesday in Congress that the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, present his resignation over the railway accident of last week in Urda (Toledo), in which 69 people died and numerous injuries were reported. Both parties stress that, even if it is not “sufficient,” their exit from the Government is essential, noting that the tragedy occurs just nine months after the January disaster in Adamuz (Córdoba). By contrast, the Government’s partners, even while maintaining their criticisms, have moderated the tone compared with previous sessions.
The PP spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, launched into Puente in the Permanent Deputy Commission of Congress with the phrase “How well he has been given to explain why people die on trains and how badly he has been given to prevent people from dying on trains,” accusing him of trying to “cynically confuse public overexposure with the assumption of responsibility” and of having spent nine months acting as if the Adamuz accident had not happened, without adopting measures.
Muñoz has defined him as “negligent, frivolous, incompetent and incapable of empathizing with other people’s pain,” has branded his behavior as “nauseating,” and has asked him “how many cellphones were ringing desperately” in the stricken carriages of Urda while he “was with his team building a narrative and leaking audios.”
The ‘popular’ representative has insisted that “Everything that could have failed has failed. It is not a one-off failure, it is systemic. And it is not a coincidence, it is the result of all of his decisions, his actions, and his omissions,” calling for him to assume his political responsibility for not having implemented yet a new security system when “the old one suffers constant falls,” for disregarding the warnings of the CIAF, and for having put “security behind his interests, raising speed to 350 kilometers to make a video giving a pin to his colleagues.”
From Vox, its spokesperson, Pepa Rodríguez de Millán, began by asking Puente whether he can sleep peacefully with “116 deaths on his back” and “how many more dead people are needed for someone to take any responsibility.” In her view, “In the charred heap of the embankment of Urda all the degradation to which this Government has brought us is concentrated.”
Rodríguez de Millán has accused the minister of lacking “neither dignity nor shame”, as well as “humanity and heart”, and has described him as a “puppet” in the hands of his “master”, referring to President Pedro Sánchez, whom he sees as “desperate” but “not because he is looking for the truth”, but because he is lifting a narrative that “at least saves the election campaign”. After warning that Vox will not stand down until Puente assumes his criminal responsibilities for the accidents in Adamuz and Urda, all the party’s lawmakers have left the chamber.
SUMAR: RESIGN, AS A LAST SERVICE
The Left United lawmaker and number three of Frente Amplio for Madrid, Toni Valero, has considered “insufficient” the explanation offered by Puente for not questioning the liberalization of the rail system, which, as he has denounced, has turned Spain into the European Union country “with the most deaths in train accidents in the last 25 years”.
For her part, the spokesperson for Sumar, Verónica Martínez Barbero, has said that the minister should resign in light of the accumulation of two serious accidents in high-speed rail within the year so far. “From Frente Amplio we ask him to resign, we ask him for it with respect, recognizing his track record and convinced that taking on that responsibility would be a last valuable service from his ministry. And believe me when I tell you that we say it for real because we think it is also the best for you,” Barbero concluded.
Gabriel Rufián, from ERC, has defended that Puente is a “good politician” who “faces up to it”, although he has emphasized that “someone has to take responsibility” and has challenged the PSOE about what it would demand if the head of Transport were from the PP. He added that the debate about whether the minister should stay on is “incidental” and a “distraction”, understanding that the underlying problem is that, after “wild liberalization”, ticket prices were reduced by 24%, traffic increased by 47% and investment only by 9%, with a balance of 115 deaths.
REPROACHES OVER THE LEAK
From EH Bildu, Mertxe Aizpurua has stressed that her formation will not prejudge or categorically point to the causes or responsibilities for the incident, nor join “political and electoral” dynamics that condemn possible people responsible, appealing to “prudence and responsibility”. That said, she has warned that they will not allow blame to be placed on workers either.
The different groups have agreed to censure the minister for the leak of the accident day audio files, some “biased” conversations, according to the PP, and with which, in Vox’s view, the Government has tried to “blame some poor workers” for a responsibility that corresponds to its department. Rufián criticized that, at this point, the PSOE is acting the way the PP did, “making life difficult” for the Angrois accident train operator.