The President of the Government and Secretary General of the PSOE has highlighted Óscar Puente’s resignation as Minister of Transport following the Urda rail disaster, presenting it as an exemplary gesture in front of a PP which he argues avoids taking responsibility when it is time to manage tragedies.
During a pre-campaign rally in València, the first for the socialists after the collision between two high-speed trains that left 69 dead last week, he has praised Puente as “a good politician” and has rejected the criticism launched by the opposition.
In this context, he has censured that PP and Vox initially reproached Puente for not stepping down from the position and that, once the resignation was submitted, “they also have criticized him.” In his view, this attitude is because the formations of Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal do not assume responsibility when a crisis occurs and they are in charge of the Government.
“Because the example of humility and exemplarity that Oscar Puente has shown, they never put it into practice in any crisis and any tragedy that they may have been able to manage while in charge of the Government,” he said.
Before around 5,000 socialist militants and supporters, among whom some were able to enter the municipal sports center in El Cabanyal in València and others who stayed outside, the head of the Executive stressed that the main lesson left by the Urda rail tragedy is “that public services matter.”
Ahead of the general elections on 29 November, he warned that at the ballot boxes a choice will be made between the protection of public services that, he says, the PSOE defends and the “cuts and the chainsaw” that he attributes to PP and Vox. “Either strengthen the public or cut the public.”
(More to follow)