Óscar Puente has announced before the Permanent Deputation of Congress his resignation both as head of the Transport and Sustainable Mobility portfolio and from his position as number one for Valladolid on the PSOE lists. The minister made his announcement at the end of a long session in which he heard from all the parliamentary spokespersons, with the exception of the PSOE and Bildu, the demand for his resignation.
As Puente himself has acknowledged, a Transport Minister "cannot continue with two accidents of this severity in less than a year." He has also assured that this decision was made as soon as he became aware of the Urda accident and that it is a matter "of political dignity, coherence and empathy with the victims."
Despite his statements to the contrary in the previous days, Puente has now stated that "he cannot continue in office with two accidents of this severity in less than a year, no matter how different they are and whether or not he has direct responsibility for them."
Puente, in the eye of the political storm after the Urda accident, has appeared before the Permanent Deputation of Congress, ready to "offer all the answers that the victims and their families deserve", but from the first minute it has been known that none of them would satisfy the parliamentary groups. The session has been very hard.
The minister dedicated his first intervention, of just 30 minutes, to detailing the investments carried out on the Madrid-Seville line as well as the measures that are now being worked on to improve the railway network, the safety protocols and the professional and labor measures that affect Renfe and Adif workers.
Puente has admitted that it is "imperative" to reinforce the system after the serious accidents that have been recorded on high speed in the last nine months, in reference to Adamuz and Urda.
The spokesperson for the popular parties, Ester Muñoz, has launched a direct attack against the minister, calling it "disturbing" that he considers that his responsibilities are exhausted by giving explanations for fatal accidents instead of preventing them.
Muñoz recalled that after Adamuz's accident and his multiple press conferences there have been many lies but there has been no management, as if nothing had happened. His frivolity has reached the point of having seen him dance and make jokes on television about the state of the trains. The PP spokesperson has also described as "nauseating" the leak of the audios just hours after the accident. "You have not asked for forgiveness, nor do you regret it and you consider that your management does not deserve reproach (...) and, furthermore, you consider that you are going to go through an ordeal, even during the campaign." Muñoz has accused him of "constructing a story and leaking audio while people searched for their dead."
"Political responsibility involves being responsible for the organization that is directed," stressed the representative of the Popular Party who has carried out a very harsh intervention to the point of accusing the minister of "putting his electoral interests ahead of the generals, rigging contracts from the Ministry and embezzling European money that should have been allocated to the railway system."
"You have no credibility. Your Government has dedicated itself to propaganda instead of management. Governing is not resisting, as Sánchez maintains," stressed the PP spokesperson for whom Puente's resignation is no longer even enough "because he is late, 116 lives late."
For Vox, represented by its spokesperson Pepa Millán, a resignation from Puente is already inconsequential. Millán has accused the minister of "taxing people's lives" with the compensation he now announces for the victims. "For you, human life means absolutely nothing," the spokesperson said. "You have neither dignity nor shame nor humanity nor heart nor principles," Millán launched.
After a very harsh intervention against the management of Pedro Sánchez's Government within the Ministry of Transport, the Vox spokesperson has announced that her formation will not contribute to "normalizing this commission as if it were just another one." At the end of his speaking turn, both Millán and his party colleagues present in the Permanent Deputation have left the session.
The Vox representative has also assured that her party will do everything in its power to make Puente pay in court for all the deaths he has caused.
Toni Valero, on behalf of Sumar, has called it "intolerable frivolity" to dedicate ourselves today to "a settling of political scores." For Sumar, Puente's explanations are insufficient because they have not addressed what they consider the key: "the liberalization of the sector that has put human security at risk by putting economic benefits before it." "This neoliberal model puts productivity before safety and the worst thing is that this model is transferred to other public services. We must nationalize the railway system, we need a 100% public model," stated its spokesperson.
Verónica Barbero, also from Sumar, now Frente Amplio, has reiterated that her coalition is calling for the minister's departure. "We do not attribute blame to you for the accident but you are at the head of the Ministry and you must respond from that position, you must assume political responsibilities and present your resignation. From Frente Amplio we ask you to resign and we ask you to do so with respect."
"We are playing Russian roulette"
Gabriel Rufián, with a measured tone, has insisted that, in this situation, the minister "is not important" and has stated that "his continuity or not is just a distraction." "The key question is," he said, "if the system is secure and the answer is no." "Here there is something that has been done wrong for many years and the culprits have names and surnames: the first, the PP with its cuts and the second, the PSOE with its savage liberalization," said the ERC representative for whom "Adif is a public housing full of contractors and subcontractors."
"We are playing Russian roulette with more than one bullet," Rufián stressed before calling for "a comprehensive review plan and a massive investment in maintenance." The ERC spokesperson has also mentioned the leak of the audios between the trains and the Atocha control and then insisted that the right is not the solution -PP, Vox and Junts are "tambourine patriots", he said -, the solution is in his opinion a PSOE that has a strong and demanding left pressuring it.
From Junts, Míriam Nogueras has emphasized the lack of network maintenance. "Those responsible are the different Spanish governments," he stated. The pro-independence representative has focused a good part of her intervention on the Catalan claims: Rodalíes and the Mediterranean corridor. "The problem is who manages it and how they manage it and those," he launched, "are you."
EH Bildu has said it refuses to "reduce the tragedy to an individual error." Mertxe Aizpurua, however, assessed the measures announced today by the minister "positively", but asked why they were not taken sooner. The Abertzale spokesperson has asked Puente for "containment and moderation" and has attacked the policy of "build and inaugurate" instead of promoting the "maintenance" policy. Bildu has called for an independent investigation, a review of the protocols to follow in degraded situations and an audit of the maintenance of the infrastructure, as well as the effects of liberalization.
Mikel Legarda, on behalf of the PNV, has assumed that Urda's case "goes beyond a human error" and has cited the workers' recurring complaints against the system. "Almost everything has to be audited," said the Basque nationalist deputy for whom the deterioration of Spanish high speed has been going on for more than a decade. "This is an unacceptable situation, it is urgent to recover the broken trust and we must assume responsibility, minister. Now it is your turn to resign as a manifestation of that political responsibility. Do not cling to the president's trust or your own character; you have missed the train of citizen trust and there is no remedy," Legarda claimed.
Ione Belarra ( Podemos ) has criticized the fact that "security and business have been put before." For the purple ones, the problem is "the liberalization and wild outsourcing of maintenance." "Not only do you have to leave, we also have to renationalize the railway." Belarra has called for a public audit of all LZB system outages in recent years and has urged the minister to name the person who leaked the audios just hours after the accident. "It was a baseness," stressed the purple representative for whom "the capitalist system is sick."
The BNG has also referred to the leak of the audios as something "unacceptable" and from there has distributed responsibilities for the deterioration of the railway network between the PP and the PSOE. This formation has also considered Puente's resignation "inevitable."
