PP and Vox have reiterated this Tuesday in Congress that, even if only relatively “sufficient,” the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, must leave his position because of last week’s railway accident in Urda (Toledo), in which 69 people have died and numerous injured people have been reported. Both parties have underscored that the tragedy comes just nine months after the January incident in Adamuz (Córdoba). By contrast, the Government’s partners, although they maintain their reproaches, have toned down the harshness of their interventions compared to previous days.
The PP spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, has launched an attack on Puente in the Permanent Deputation with the phrase “How well he is able to explain why people die on trains and how poorly he is able to prevent people from dying on trains,” accusing him of seeking to “cynically confuse public overexposure with taking responsibility,” and of not having pushed for any measure after the Adamuz incident.
Muñoz described the minister as “negligent, frivolous, incompetent and incapable of empathizing with others’ pain,” labeled his management “nauseating,” and went as far as questioning “how many mobile phones were desperately ringing” in the stricken carriages in Urda while he “was with his team building a narrative and filtering audio.”
According to the popular party leader, “this is not a one-off failure, it is systemic. And it is not a coincidence, it is the causality of all his decisions, his actions and his omissions,” holding him responsible for not having implemented a new security system when “the old one suffers constant falls,” for ignoring the warnings of the CIAF, and for having put “safety behind his interests, raising the speed to 350 kilometers to make a video giving a pin to his colleagues.”
The member of parliament predicted that “when he is out of politics he will look back at this intervention and be ashamed,” reproaching him for “an exercise in cynicism and incredible demagoguery,” and she concluded by demanding: “Take your hands off the Ministry of Transport. We have already lost too many lives because of you.”
From Vox, Pepa Rodríguez de Millán asked the minister whether he is able to sleep with 116 deaths “on his back” and how many more victims “are needed for someone to assume responsibility.” In her view, “In the charred heap of the embankment of Urda, all the degradation to which this Government has led us is concentrated.”
Rodríguez de Millán has also reproached him for not having “not dignity, shame, humanity, or a heart,” and has defined him as a “puppet” in the hands of his “boss,” President Pedro Sánchez, whom he sees as “desperate” to forge a narrative that “at least saves the electoral campaign.” After warning that Vox will continue to pressure until Puente assumes his criminal responsibilities for the incidents in Adamuz and Urda, all the party’s MPs have left the chamber.
Government partners: criticism of the rail model and calls to resign
The IU deputy and number three on Frente Amplio for Madrid, Toni Valero, has branded the minister’s explanations as “insufficient” for not questioning the liberalization of the rail system, which, he has denounced, has turned Spain into the European Union country “with more deaths in train accidents in the last 25 years.”
The spokesperson for Sumar, Verónica Martínez Barbero, has also demanded Puente’s departure: “We ask him to resign; we ask him for it with respect, acknowledging his track record and convinced that taking on that responsibility would be a final valuable service from his ministry. And believe me when I tell you we say it for real because we think it is also best for you.”
Gabriel Rufián, from ERC, has defended that the head of Transport is a “good politician” who at least “shows up,” but he has insisted that “someone has to take charge” and has challenged the PSOE about what it would demand if the minister were from the PP. He has stressed that the debate about Puente’s continuation is “incidental,” focusing on the fact that, after “wild liberalization,” the price of tickets fell by 24%, traffic increased by 47%, and investment rose by only 9%, with a balance of 115 fatalities.
Along the same lines, Míriam Nogueras, from Junts, has denounced the low investment in rail maintenance and has assured that the system “has collapsed” after years of “bad management.” As with Rufián, who has talked about “shit trains” on Cercanías, she has criticized that these lines receive up to 15 times fewer resources than the AVE and has reiterated her demand to transfer the powers to the Generalitat.
More risk on high-speed train than in a car
The PNV deputy Mikel Legarda has also demanded the resignation of the minister, underlining that Spain already concentrates 54% of the victims in high-speed accidents and that in 2026 there will be "more probability of dying in Spanish high-speed travel than while traveling in a car". He has insisted that his request does not respond to "political bait", but to a "culture of political responsibility", concluding that "We believe that you have missed the train of trust and there is no remedy left for you".
On the Bildu side, Mertxe Aizpurua has stressed that her party will not prejudge or set in advance the causes or responsibilities of the incident, nor will it enter into dynamics "with political and electoral overtones" that point to possible those responsible, appealing to "prudence and responsibility". However, she has warned that they will also not allow the blame to be placed on the workers.
The general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, believes that the "true human error" in the Urda accident is the "liberalization" of the rail system, which puts "business ahead of people’s safety". Therefore, in addition to demanding his dismissal, which she calls "a social outcry", she has demanded the renationalization of the service. Néstor Rego, from the BNG, has been more cautious, limiting himself to pointing out that Puente himself is "aware" that it is "inevitable to assume responsibilities" and that broad sectors take his departure from the Executive for granted.
Controversy over the audio recordings and the minister’s defense by the PSOE
Several groups have agreed to condemn the leak of the audio recordings from the day of the accident, conversations that, according to the PP, are "biased", with which, in Vox’s view, the Government would have tried to "blame some poor workers" for a responsibility that would correspond to the Ministry.
Rufián has denounced that the PSOE is acting the same as the PP when it "amargoring la vida" for the driver of the Angrois accident, an episode that the BNG has also recalled, describing as "unacceptable" that the same pattern should be repeated. Belarra, for her part, has regretted that blame has been placed on "the weakest link in the chain" through the leak of data from the deceased driver, something she considers "a moral low".
The PSOE spokesperson, Patxi López, has also referred to the accusation against the Angrois train driver by the current PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, then president of the Xunta, and has criticized that Puente be asked to resign, who, in his opinion, has recounted “the facts as they were” and has acted in an “infinitely more prudent and sensible” manner than the popular leader.
López has denounced that “The minister must resign for being where he had to be, for facing up and not doing what others did—an exercise in escapism,” and has acknowledged that the demand for accountability is “legitimate,” but has asked not “to confuse it” with “the rush to find guilty parties.”
In his view, “pointing to the minister and asking for his resignation neither clarifies the accident nor protects the next traveler.” He has defended that “The minister’s responsibility is not to get out of the way; it is to explain what happened and ensure the implementation of concrete measures, as has already begun to be done today.”