"The system has failed on the AVE high-speed train and commuter rail": groups are pressuring Puente to resign

MadridThe Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, will appear before the Senate this Thursday, at the request of the PP, to explain the train accidents in Adamuz (Córdoba) and Gelida, as well as the chaos caused by the latter incident. on the commuter rail network in CataloniaThe first thing Puente did was to provide a timeline of the events surrounding the Andalusian accident and defend his administration and the maintenance that Adif had carried out on the tracks. In fact, the Minister of Transport asserted that the affected section "is neither abandoned nor forgotten," thus ruling out any connection between the accident and the state of the infrastructure, despite the fact that the investigation by the Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF) is focusing on the rail welding. He also stated that the "anomalies" previously detected at Iryo—merely some marks under the trains—do not explain the Adamuz accident either. In this regard, Puente left the causes of the track failure open, stating that at this time "no hypothesis is being ruled out."

The Minister of Transport touted his "transparency"—citing all the press conferences he had held—and lashed out against what he considers "disinformation" on social media and from the "right-wing media and political establishment." "I've heard outrageous things," he said, suggesting that it's all a strategy by the far right to make an "authoritarian regime" more "digestible." "They want to create a false image that nothing works and that citizens are unprotected," he concluded. However, as expected, the explanations have not convinced the right wing, nor the pro-independence partners, who have focused their criticism primarily on the situation of the commuter rail network.

The People's Party (PP) has directly accused Puente of lying about the accident: "It's political negligence." According to the PP, the communication didn't fail, but rather the minister himself, since he focused his criticism on the track renewal. The PP's argument is that the cause of the accident lies in the "deficient" maintenance and the fact that the track was not fully renewed, but only "partially." They allude to the weld that joined an old and a new section in the accident area, which is the focus of the investigations: "The only solid weld is the one that connects you to Pedro Sánchez," they said. "You must resign," they concluded. Paloma Gómez, from Vox, said that the Adamuz accident is not only "a human tragedy" but also a "political failure, and there are those responsible": "You are a bad person," she went so far as to say.

However, calls for resignation have also come from Pedro Sánchez's partners. In the case of Junts and Esquerra, beyond the accident in Andalusia, they have focused their criticism of the ministry on the chaos of the commuter rail system following the Gelida accident. "Resign, this is over," declared Eduard Pujol, the Junts leader in the upper house, "the system has failed on the AVE high-speed trains and the commuter rail." Meanwhile, Sara Bailac, of the Republicans, also blamed the ministry for the railway situation in Catalonia: "You have resigned." de facto of his responsibility in Catalonia [...]. Nothing that has happened in the last week with the commuter rail chaos has been enough for him to travel to Catalonia and take charge of this chaotic crisis."

Puente's appearance, his first in parliament after the derailment of two high-speed trains in Andalusia, comes eleven days after that fifth train collision with a retaining wall that ended the life of a trainee driver on the R4 line.

Criticism of Sánchez and the commission of inquiry

HeThe opposition has targeted the ministerBut it has the support of Spanish President Pedro Sánchez. The People's Party (PP) had also requested that the Spanish president appear before Congress regarding the accidents, but he has refused to do so in the Senate and will instead appear in the Congress on February 11. "If the president of Spain doesn't come to the Senate with 45 fatalities, when should he come? He is a cowardly president when it comes to the truth, cruel to the victims, and despotic towards parliament," declared PP Senator Alicia García. The date has also been criticized by the PP, who consider it "shameful" that the head of the national government is waiting "two more weeks to give explanations." At the same time, the PP has announced that it will launch a commission of inquiry within the Senate itself. The leader of the People's Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced the commission in an interview on Antena 3, stating that the Spanish government is "deceiving" citizens and "hiding" information from a ministry that "is ground zero for PSOE corruption," alluding to the Koldo-Ábalos-Cerdán cases. He said the commission will investigate "the safety and condition of the Spanish railway system, including high-speed rail, commuter rail, and the Madrid commuter rail network."