For the first time in this now almost defunct legislature and just three weeks before the 29-N elections, practically all parliamentary groups have called for the resignation of Óscar Puente. He did so this Tuesday, during the appearance of the Minister of Transport in the Permanent Deputation of Congress to report on the fateful train accident in Urda that has claimed the lives of at least 69 people. And everyone has done it except EH Bildu, the most faithful partner of the Government of President Pedro Sánchez. Puente's explanations have not convinced political groups, which, for one reason or another, have disapproved of his railway management in recent years.
The first intervention was made by the PP spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, who, in a very harsh tone, reproached the minister for, "far from auditing the road on which the Adamuz accident occurred [the same one on which the Urda accident occurred]", in recent months "he has behaved as if nothing had happened." "We have seen you dance and laugh at the accidents and incidents of users and train drivers. Only 9 months after Adamuz, you were making jokes, a few days ago, and again another tragedy," said Muñoz, who added about Puente's appearance: "How good you are at explaining why people die on trains and how bad you are at avoiding it."
The PP spokesperson reminded the minister that Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party "has been proposing for years" the plan to reinforce railway safety systems that the Government announced this Tuesday after the Council of Ministers and that, in response to this, the response he received from him was insult. Furthermore, Muñoz has directly targeted Puente in the leak to the media, just hours after the accident, of the audios of the conversations held between the Adif control center and the drivers of the damaged trains. "Are you aware that when those audios were leaked the family of the driver [the one who drove the AVE, who died] heard them and still didn't know anything about him? While some families were looking for their loved ones, you were with your team building a story and leaking audios. You are incapable of empathizing with the pain of others," he reproached him, before doing the same with the lack of "forgiveness" to the citizens.
For her part, Vox's parliamentary spokesperson, Pepa Millán, has asked the minister if "he can live with 116 deaths behind him [46 in Adamuz, 69 in Urda and one in Gelida]" in less than a year and has accused the Government of "turning Spain into a Golgotha", where "a constant ordeal is experienced". "It seems normal to you that the [LZB] system crashes 170 times and I wanted us to go on those roads at 350 kilometers per hour," Millán said, who has also blamed Puente for the leak of the audio from the Adif control center and for "blaming" the accident on the operator who ordered the AVE that hit the stopped Iryo to resume moving from behind. "The Socialist Party blaming a Spanish worker," he said ironically.
"Human error should be that they served tea and not coffee"
Sumar, a member of the PSOE Government and today re-founded in Frente Amplio, has also openly requested the resignation of Óscar Puente, although he has stressed that "this does not erase in any way the work done nor does it imply admitting any guilt." "You are an intelligent person with common sense, we do not attribute blame to you for the accident, but political responsibility has its own scope," declared spokesperson Verónica Martínez, who, together with Toni Valero, has insisted on the urgency of "nationalizing the railway service" after the PP and PSOE have turned it into "a neoliberal laboratory."
On the other hand, ERC spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, has defended that the minister "is a good politician and shows his face." "But someone has to take charge of this. It is not worth saying that neither [Federico] Trillo with the Yak-42 nor [Ana] Pastor with Angrois. What would we ask for if it were a PP minister who had more than 100 deaths on the table after nine months and two accidents?" he launched.
Rufián has lamented that "seven out of every ten people who have died at high speed in the world have done so in Spain" and that "it is not debatable" to affirm that "something has been done wrong." "Not a single AVE victim in Spain in 30 years, but 115 victims in the last five. Just the years of liberalization," he snapped, before also reproaching Puente for pointing to the order of the Adif operator as the main cause of the accident: "A human error reflects a failed system. A human error on an AVE should be that they gave you a tea and not a coffee, not that a train crashes at 200 kilometers per hour with another train," he said. blurted out.
Junts, for its part, in the words of Miriam Nogueras, has pointed out that "the Spanish railway system has collapsed" and that this is something caused by "years of mismanagement." "More thought has been given to opening roads that no one is going to use than to investing in those that are already built," he launched. Meanwhile, the PNV spokesperson, Mikel Legarda, has stated that "in Urda it rains and it pours" and that the accident, together with that in Adamuz, have caused "a national trauma." "It is good that you have been in charge of the railway emergency and that you have given thorough explanations, but we believe that now, to take charge of the state of mind of society, it is your turn to resign," he stated.
On the other hand, Podemos spokesperson, Ione Belarra, regretted that "three of the four deadliest AVE accidents in the world have occurred in Spain" and criticized that "the PP and PSOE governments have tried to convince us that it was a tragedy that could not be avoided." For her, "the big mistake has been the liberalization" of the sector, "putting business before people's safety." However, Belarra has not let the leak of the audio from the Adif control center at the time of the accident pass either: "There are good reasons to think that it was you or someone on your team, and that is not information, that is moral turpitude," she reproached him.
Bildu spokesperson, Mertxe Aizpurua, has been the only leader who has not demanded the resignation of the Minister of Transport. "Out of prudence and responsibility, we will not participate in the dynamics of pointing out and sentencing possible perpetrators. We will not do it with you, Mr. Puente, but we are not going to admit that it is done with the workers either. When the investigation is known, then we will be able to assess the causes and then we will demand accountability, no matter who falls," he defended.
