Pedro Sánchez tried to avoid Óscar Puente’s resignation until the very last moment. The president of the Government replied with a "Don’t even think about it, don’t do it" to the WhatsApp message with which the then Minister of Transport informed him that he was leaving the Executive. The response arrived when Puente was about to publicly announce his decision before the Permanent Delegation of the Congress, although he did not read it until after finishing his appearance.
As this Wednesday laSexta has revealed, Puente informed Sánchez of his resignation barely a minute before making it public, through a long message in which he also told him that he would not stand as the PSOE head of list for Valladolid in the general elections of November 29.
"When you read this message, your first reaction is going to be one of astonishment. While you read it, I will be announcing my resignation. I hope you don’t consider it as a betrayal, but as an act of generosity," the former minister wrote to the president.
Sánchez responded immediately to ask him not to leave the post. However, Puente had decided not to check the phone until he finished his parliamentary speech.
Puente left the mobile face down to avoid reading the reply
The former minister had prepared his goodbye on Monday, a day before appearing in Congress, and had incorporated it into the speech with which he would explain the circumstances of the Urda (Toledo) rail accident.
After sending the WhatsApp message to Sánchez, he placed the phone face down on the table to avoid reading any reply that might cause him to reconsider his decision.
It was not until after he left the Permanent Delegation, spoke with his entourage, and got into the car, that he consulted the president’s message.
The resignation surprised Sánchez himself, who had publicly backed Puente during the days following the Urda accident, which occurred on October 28 and left 69 dead.
Sánchez and Puente met for hours at La Moncloa
The former minister’s decision came after several days of talks with the president of the Government. According to laSexta information, Sánchez received Puente during the weekend at La Moncloa, where both held a meeting lasting between three and four hours.
The head of the Executive conveyed to him that they were going through an especially difficult moment, but that they could get through it together. Sánchez thus maintained his backing for the person in charge of Transport despite criticism from the opposition and calls for his resignation after the accidents in Adamuz and Urda.
Puente, however, had begun to weigh his exit starting from the same day as the second railway tragedy.
"I’m going to leave. This is unsustainable. I can’t continue at the head of the ministry with this accident and what happened in Adamuz," he conveyed at the time to his partner and to his family, according to the account collected by laSexta.
A resignation announced at the end of four hours of testimony
Puente announced his resignation this Tuesday, November 3, at the end of a testimony of about four hours before the Standing Committee of the Congress, in which he explained the sequence of events that preceded the Urda accident and answered questions from the parliamentary groups.
The former minister had defended his handling of the emergency and the measures adopted to strengthen railway safety until then. Finally, he communicated that he could not continue at the head of Transport after two accidents of such seriousness in less than a year.
The decision also involved him leaving the PSOE’s electoral lists for the 29N.
After learning of the resignation, Sánchez published a message of recognition for Puente in which he defended that he had given explanations, pushed forward solutions, and decided to leave the Government of his own will.
The revelation of the messages exchanged between the two confirms, according to the account published by laSexta, that Puente’s departure was a personal decision that the president tried to prevent, even when the former minister was already announcing it to the Congress.