Óscar Puente has reaffirmed his intention not to resign after the train accident in Urda (Toledo) in which 69 people died, the second tragedy on Spanish high speed trains in nine months. "I am a very small person for the political project of which I am part, which is very important, which is a country project. If I believed that my continuity was detrimental to it, I would have stepped aside," said the Minister of Transport at a press conference held this Friday in Madrid.
According to the socialist politician, head of the list for Congress for Valladolid in the elections on November 29, he does not wish "on anyone" what is happening and knows "the ordeal" to which he will be "subjected in the coming days, "the insults, disqualifications and prejudices of guilt" that are going to be attributed to him in the middle of the pre-campaign. To which he added: "The easy thing for me is to leave, but it is neither in my character nor is it what the president of the Government".
"Because that is the other possibility: that whoever puts me in charge of this considers that I am a problem or that it is better for the country's project that I be outside the project," Puente continued during the press conference, who later, in an informal conversation with journalists, revealed that he made his position available but that Pedro Sánchez responded that it would be "unfair" for him to leave. "I will never be a problem," he added, implying that he would have complied with the order to leave voluntarily if he had been asked to do so.
The head of Transport understands that citizens demand explanations for a tragedy of this nature and demand responsibility, but he has insisted that at this moment the evidence points to a failure in the Adif command control center at the Atocha station as the main cause of an AVE traveling at 160 km/h hitting an Iryo that was stopped due to a technical problem in Urda.
"I want to make it clear that I am not going to use any worker as a shield or prejudge responsibilities before this investigation is concluded, but I am also not going to allow the demand for responsibilities to be confused with the need to quickly find a culprit. My way of assuming responsibilities, you know it well, is to show my face," Puente stressed.
The argument that the minister has given to justify his continuity in office is that it was not his duty to be in the command center on the day of the accident, but now it is his duty to "be in command." "I'm not going to hide behind anyone, among other things because I have nothing to hide," he added.
He has also assured that he feels "pain" and "enormous sadness" for the victims and their families, although he maintains that he cannot let this pain paralyze him or confuse him: "That is my way of understanding responsibility."
Regarding whether he would have demanded the resignation of the Minister of Transport after two train accidents in nine months with 115 deaths if he had been in the opposition, Puente has chosen not to enter the field of hypothesis, but he has recalled what the PSOE did after the Angrois accident, in which 80 people died: "Not to ask for the resignation of Ana Pastor."
Likewise, he has highlighted that, unlike his predecessor in office, who only appeared at the branch Commission in Congress to give explanations for the incident, he has shown "his face", in reference to the press conference this Friday and those he gave after the tragedy in Adamuz (Córdoba) in January of this same year. "Decent people don't use human lives," he added.
Puente thus once again puts on the suit of the manager who gives press conferences without a time limit - this Friday's one lasted almost two hours - and vindicates his decision to continue leading his responsibility and to work on this as he has previously done in other crises: "Putting in the maximum of my efforts and my ability and offering the Spanish people solutions that lead to regaining trust."
