The president of the PNV, Aitor Esteban, has emphasized that the Urda railway accident "cannot go without political responsibilities" because "society needs to have the feeling that there is another new team" and has asked the question "what has to happen for them to be assumed". At the same time, he has called for opening a debate on "mass discounts" in public transport, which, in his view, could have been used "for the maintenance or improvement of road infrastructure".
In an interview on Telecinco, reported by Europa Press, the jeltzale leader has recalled that "everyone" considers that the Urda train accident, in which 69 people have died, "has been something terrible and unacceptable", and has underscored that "it is that, moreover, when it rains, it pours".
"There are two tremendous accidents in the same year and, beyond the loss of life and all the pain that this entails, the Spanish transport infrastructure system itself has been called into question," he emphasized.
Esteban has defended that, first of all, "a thorough technical examination" must be carried out, but has insisted that "this cannot go without political responsibilities" because "society also needs to have the feeling that there is another new team that is going to do things in a different way".
"I am not saying that the minister or the Secretary of State have had direct responsibility as individuals, but they do have the politics; and acting as if nothing were happening, when even the prime minister has stated that it is an absolutely serious matter, cannot be. What has to happen for political responsibilities to be assumed?", he asked.
Responsibilities in infrastructure and discounts
The president of the PNV has pointed out that, in the area of infrastructure, within the ministry and as regards the railway, "there are specific responsibilities".
He has specified that his party does not reject subsidies for the regular journeys of those who travel for work "or whatever circumstances".
However, he has warned that "what cannot be is these mass discounts that have been made for years and years", and that "was more going to be a kind of image of the Government. 'That money could be used and we have insisted a lot on the maintenance or improvement of road infrastructure'," he indicated.
In his opinion, in this area "a reflection is also needed" because the high-speed railway network in Spain "is already a few years old" and is beginning to "feel the effects of the passage of time". "Therefore, a reflection on everything is needed," he has reiterated.
Political blockade and transport funding
Aitor Esteban has admitted that getting through a full legislature without approving Budgets is "obviously not normal", but he has recalled that "the truth is that there is no mechanism in the Constitution" and that, in the face of "a parliamentary blockade, there were no other government alternatives and therefore what has happened has happened".
He has also emphasized that the PNV has defended "many times" that, in matters of transport discounts, "a reflection has to be made, because many resources are needed for the maintenance of the infrastructure".
"Those for frequent travelers should indeed be subsidized, but a subsidy without taking income into account, without taking travel frequency into account, whether it is for work or not or for whatever, I think what it does is drain resources that could be used for something else," he concluded.