Nobody knows exactly what the phrase "assume political responsibilities" means, a euphemism that can sometimes be translated as resigning, other times as enduring the downpour in the first person, and other times as the art of dismissing one or more subordinates to weather one's own problem. Sometimes even taking responsibility means nothing, or, worse still, it simply means explaining and bragging about it. After the Urda accident, Óscar Puente, who had already explored all the edges of political escapism after the Adamuz tragedy, only had to resign as Minister of Transport and last night he did so by surprise, at the end of his speech in the Permanent Deputation of Congress, and after having claimed just the opposite a few hours before, in La Moncloa.
Six days after the second avoidable railway tragedy in 10 months, he did the right thing, the right thing and the least bad thing for Pedro Sánchez, although it will not serve to stop the electoral hemorrhage. Now the game of responsibilities passes to the President of the Government, who is left without his main lightning rod.
Puente was forced to resign, precisely, because it was his turn, in the non-periphrastic sense of the expression, to assume all the responsibility that is attached to the institutional condition of minister. It was his turn to exercise the duty and competence of his position. Take charge.
Assuming responsibility means not shaking off the weight of the purple, as he did in Adamuz. Not the weight of the 115 deaths that accumulate under the umbrella of its organizational chart. The dribble of the dismissed minister broke their honors' hips, because just seven hours earlier Puente had said just the opposite, that he declared himself irresponsible: "I have not made any decision that has contributed to causing this damage. I have not omitted any political decision that has contributed to causing this damage. And when I had to respond, I was at my job and I responded. At that time, the minister not only did not resign, but he was two public appearances away from distributing to the media a commemorative pin of his good management as head of rail transport in Spain, the country with the most high-speed victims in the world.
But, as he himself said, he cannot continue as minister with two fatal train accidents in less than a year. Not with one, we add. At Adif, in close proximity to the news, they assured that they are perfectly aware that now they are also going to demand resignations from them: "There is uncertainty in the management bodies appointed by the Government," officials from the railway promoter assure this newspaper. Both the president of the entity, Pedro Marco de la Peña, as well as general directors and deputy directors had gathered around the minister to avoid leaks and to "silence" those who, within Adif, want to emphasize that we are facing a clear failure of the system aggravated by the lack of management of public operators.
In fact, as this newspaper has learned, at the end of last week the meetings began - in very small groups - in Adif in which the directors and deputy directors asked the intermediate positions and technicians to remain confidential, as revealed by two of those present at those meetings. "We were told that if we have to attend any sector event, not to go, and to refrain from issuing any type of assessment on the subject" of Urda. Also in the media, reveals one of the railway promoter's maintenance and safety technicians consulted. "And they ask us to send any response to the general secretary of the Board of Directors," he adds.
"They want to silence all of us who have not been named by hand," denounces one of those affected by the internal tensions in Adif, who speaks openly about "witch hunts" and who asks to keep his name anonymous, because "anyone who speaks will have their head cut off." "Of course there is a witch hunt," he emphasizes, because "the team that Puente put in place controls everything remotely." "And we believe that this is going to be diluted like Adamuz" if there are not also dismissals in the Adif leadership.
What actually is political responsibility? It is "the weight of the purple of power." The former President of the Government Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo explained it precisely in his book Living Memory of the Transition: "Do not trust the minister who is happy in his easy chair and sad when he is laid off: it is because he did not understand his ministry well, or that he did not command much, or that he did not deserve to be a minister."
Yesterday, finally, Óscar Puente felt that weight. He took charge.
