Former Transport minister Óscar Puente has once again loaded against PP president Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whom he has branded as a “liar” and “narco’s friend” after he questioned the reasons for Puente’s departure from the Ministry following the Urda (Toledo) rail disaster, in which 69 people died.
During an interview on the program 'El Hormiguero' on 'Antena 3', Feijóo said he does not believe Puente left the post out of empathy with the victims, but because polls were predicting a major setback for the PSOE, and he emphasized that despite his resignation as minister and candidate, he continues to be a deputy and is part of the Permanent Delegation.
As a result of those statements, Puente has published a message on the social network 'X' in which he argues that “it is a useless exercise to ask the narco’s friend for elegance with whom he goes,” and that demanding that “at least he doesn’t lie” is “even more useless.” “I hope that the citizens put this individual with no morals in his place on 29-N,” concludes the former minister in his reply.
Along with that text, Puente has circulated the resolution of the Provincial Electoral Board of Valladolid in which the acceptance of his resignation as head of the PSOE ticket for that constituency is made official.
Despite this, he continues to hold his seat in Congress, since with the Cortes dissolved, the PSOE cannot replace him. In this way, he continues to appear as a substitute in the Permanent Delegation, given that there are barely about three weeks left until the end of the legislature.
This Thursday, Puente has been seen in the Lower House, although, as he explained to reporters in the courtyard of Congress, he did so only to undergo “a medical check-up.”
Puente defends keeping the seat until the elections
Asked why he had not also handed in his deputy’s certificate, the former minister said that, “in normal circumstances,” he would have given the seat to the next candidate on the PSOE list for Valladolid, but that, with “20 days” left for the polls and as a substitute in the Permanent Delegation, he was not going to leave the party “with one person less”.
“I think it’s quite understandable. I’ve already renounced the candidacy; I think few more things can be asked of me,” Puente emphasized, who reiterated that he will remain a socialist party member and will continue to support the party “from another angle, from the corner” that corresponds to him, even if no longer from institutional responsibilities.
Finally, when asked about the opposition casting doubt that the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, did not know in advance about his decision to resign, Puente has replied that "the opposition always thinks the worst, but almost never gets it right."