The president of PP-A, Juanma Moreno, has urged this Saturday to "punish" the Government at the polls on November 29, as a result of the railway incidents in Adamuz (Córdoba) and Urda (Toledo), of the investigations by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Guardia Civil into Adif for "alleged corruption, kickbacks in the maintenance of the trains," and of the investigation opened by the European Public Prosecutor's Office, on its own initiative, into the use of European funds intended to modernize the security of the rail network, especially the southern corridor that connects Madrid with Andalucía. He has encompassed all of this in a "management disaster."
In light of this situation, Moreno has asked "are we going to let this Government go unpunished before a situation like this?", to then convey that "this cannot be allowed to happen this way, that no one can go unpunished politically, that this has to have a political and electoral cost, that this has to have a punishment in society," on this occasion "with the vote," so that there is "electoral punishment, because then what is democracy for?".
In his intervention, the popular leader argued that "democracy serves to confirm and motivate those who are good managers," but "it also serves to punish those who do it wrong." "And this is not that it's bad, it's that this is terribly bad," or "to play, as some of the train drivers said, Russian roulette with the lives of citizens who are on a train," he stressed. He also questioned "what kind of maintenance have they carried out in the southern corridor, what kind of government and what kind of managers we have that they are not able to guarantee our life," referring to the reports by experts about the condition of the tracks in Adamuz.
Therefore, he has reiterated "how far are we going to get," and he has asked that on the 29th "no one forgets that we should keep in our head and heart the memory of all those people who have lost their lives and of their relatives, that we take it into account when putting in the ballot." At the same time, he has lamented that "today, the Andalucía train is a disaster" and has assured that he will not "stop until the railway line is in perfect condition, that it guarantees the safety of the people of Andalucía and visitors."
Moreno has launched this message during the ceremony presenting the PP candidacies for the general elections of 29N for the Congress and the Senate across the eight Andalusian provinces, held at the Polideportivo of the Colegio Mayor Nuestra Señora de la Asunción in Córdoba, where the expected attendance has been "exceeded". The event included a special remembrance for the victims of the two railway accidents, for whom "they lost their lives and just as many others we don’t talk about and who have been left affected forever, because they have had an amputation or trauma and, therefore, their life will never be the same again, and many others who have been psychologically affected".
"Not a single positive action for Andalusia and Spain"
In the run-up to the official start of the campaign, which will begin on Thursday night, the leader of the Andalusian People's Party has defended that the "objective is to convince, to inspire, and to convey to citizens the importance of the electoral appointment of the 29th" for "their lives, the present and future, and the destiny of this land". In his view, "these are tremendously important elections because we are coming from eight years of very poor management at the helm of the Government".
In this context, he has asked "what else has to happen in Spain for, in a clear and forceful way, the democratically minded Spanish people to expel Sánchez and his government from that responsibility", adding that he cannot "find even a single action by the government in these eight years that has been positive for Andalusia, and even less for Spain".
According to Moreno, "it has not been a good government and probably the worst management experience in the country’s democratic history", because "there are so many things experienced that they are already forgotten". He has cited the amnesty for "independence coup-plotters", which he considers "a sufficient reason to punish them", or the April 2025 blackout, in which "six people lost their lives". He has also criticized that "the president is not able to empathize with Spaniards who live in Valencia, Andalusia or La Palma when they have problems", or with "the invasion of Ceuta", a moment when "the most important thing he has to do that day is to propose a music list".
For all these reasons, he has appealed to the “common sense” and to “disappointed” socialist voters, because “it’s not normal, not reasonable, and it doesn’t make sense to keep supporting a president who has, just three months ago, done that”, without forgetting “a legislature without a single budget and with cases of shocking, shameful corruption”.
“If this has happened in eight years, what can happen in the next four if there were a Frankenstein government again and Sánchez at the helm?”, he has said, contrasting that scenario with “the PP’s management model of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which he has carried out in Galicia, with notable success, with four absolute majorities”, and which has turned that community into “a vanguard community”.
As president of the Junta de Andalucía, Moreno has highlighted projects driven forward in Córdoba with support from his Executive, such as the Army’s Base Logística del Ejército de Tierra or the Ronda Norte, “paralyzed since 2005”, among other actions, emphasizing that the Andalusian Government approves budgets and carries out the works, against “a government that has mistreated us”.
As an example, he has pointed out that “Sánchez’s government has been unable to build more than three kilometers of dual carriageway in eight years, it has been unable to increase the commuter rail even by a single centimeter, and it has been unable to modernize airports”, while “it has brought about the greatest deterioration possible” to the rail corridor.
“That has been the action of Sánchez’s government in Andalusia,” he has summarized, before stating that “that’s why we have to talk about management, because the little dances, ‘playlist’, they go to television programs and joke around”, but that “above all there is management, the office, having qualified and capable people, worrying about the problems and providing solutions”.
In his view, “we need managers, and that’s what Spain is going to have, a great manager, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo”, whom he has praised, adding that “he has shown what Pedro Sánchez hadn’t shown, that he arrived at Government without having been a councillor, or having had responsibility for government anywhere”, so that “when someone doesn’t know about management, what happens is what happens”. Against this, he has claimed that the PP presents itself with “prepared, willing teams, and with a reform plan to get Spain running again, in the place it belongs”.
The event has had the participation of PP-A’s general secretary and campaign coordinator, Antonio Repullo, and it has been set to the music that accompanied Juanma Moreno in the campaign for the previous Andalusian elections, with his own voice. The provincial party president, Adolfo Molina, and the president of the Council of Mayors of the PP in the community and mayor of Córdoba, José María Bellido, have also taken part.
Likewise, the leading candidates to the Congress for each Andalusian province have taken the floor: Carmen Crespo for Almería; María José García Pelayo for Cádiz; Jorge Saavedra for Granada; Pilar Miranda for Huelva, who has received prolonged applause when recalling the president of the Fundación CEOE and former minister of Employment and Social Security in PP governments, Fátima Báñez, who died in the train accident in Urda. After Pilar Miranda, Luis Mariano Camacho intervened, for Jaén; Elías Bendodo, for Málaga; Juan Bravo, for Sevilla, and Lorena Guerra, for Córdoba.