The president of the PP and candidate for the Presidency of the Government, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has said this Sunday that, if he reaches La Moncloa, he will subject the rail transport system to a “handspan by handspan” review so that “security returns.” At the same time, he has demanded that the senior officials of Adif reimburse the bonuses received because, in his words, “it is vomit-inducing that they be rewarded a few days after the Urda (Toledo) accident.”
Feijóo has addressed this issue during a large pre-campaign rally held in Málaga, before about 6,000 people according to the organization, in which Juanma Moreno, president of the PP-A and of the Junta of Andalucía, also spoke.
In his speech, the popular leader has advanced that, if he assumes the Presidency of the Government, he will devote “the money of the Spanish to review every sleeper, every kilometer of overhead catenary, every track,” with the goal that “there is no fear” among users when using the train as a means of transportation.
“From then on what I will not dedicate it to is paying bonuses to Adif executives who have caused this rail disaster,” he has stressed, calling on the central Executive to have those amounts reimbursed: “Are we going to pay them for the 115 dead? If they have so much as a shred of dignity, they should give it back,” he insisted, defending that this money should be directed toward strengthening safety and compensating the victims.
The PP candidate for the Presidency of the Government has underlined that 32,000 people use “the Ave andaluz” every day and “need a full audit of the corridor” before restoring service. “New deficiencies have appeared in the same section of track as the Adamuz accident and the Government’s response can’t be any,”
Even so, he has reiterated that he will not set “a date ahead of safety, nor rushing ahead of people’s lives,” as he guaranteed during his appearance at the Ciudad Deportiva Carranque in Málaga, an event in which Juanma Moreno also participated.
From there, he warned that “Spain has already waited too long” and that “it is time for it to have a government up to the level of what it needs and deserves,” although he specified that “the change hasn’t been made yet, it has to be achieved at the ballot box.” For that reason, he has asked for “strong” support for the PP, citing Andalucía as a reference that this transformation is possible.
Feijóo has taken advantage of his presence in the Andalusian community to reaffirm his support for the Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad del Estado, recalling the Civil Guards who died in Barbate in the fight against drug trafficking.
In this regard, he has pledged to offer them "the protection and support they need," reinforcing specialized units against organized crime and recovering the permanent central unit for the South border.
"We are going to declare the Andalusian coast a zone of special security and we are going to guarantee it without a doubt. And we are going to guarantee that everything that is required of the mafias will be destined for the Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad del Estado," the Popular Party leader has said.
Among other promises made during the rally, he has stated that, if he governs, he will "never grant pardons to a politician convicted of corruption"; that he will push for the construction of one million homes and that he will revalue pensions in line with the IPC, all of this in the context of a country that, in his view, is now "collapsed" and "not working" under the Executive of Pedro Sánchez.
"Enough already of tricks and nonsense. We are here to govern," he added, expressing his intention to "give this country back hope" following the example of Andalucía.
At the event, the president of the PP-A and of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, also spoke, who has expressed his "rage" at the disaster in Urda, in which 69 people died, defending that "it could have been avoided" with the technical security systems that other high-speed lines have.
Along these lines, he has recalled that Justice has opened a separate case at the request of the European Public Prosecutor's Office to investigate "alleged kickbacks in contracts intended for the security and modernization of the Madrid-Andalucía corridor," with the purpose of clarifying whether the European funds "were used to guarantee security or for something else."
For his part, the deputy secretary for Autonomous and Municipal Policy and Electoral Analysis and head of the list to the Congress for Málaga, Elías Bendodo, has defended that the arrival of the PP in government will mean "a new time of better change for Málaga, for Andalucía and for Spain," with the goal of making the country "start working again" and for the trains "to depart and arrive on time without having accidents."
In line with this, he has censored that the resignation of the former Minister of Transport Óscar Puente occurred “six days after the Urda accident, but nine months after that of Adamuz and after 115 deaths.” “They have spent on other things the money intended for the maintenance of the railway lines, and it is a shame what the European Union is investigating,” he concluded.