Sánchez will appear before Congress on February 11 regarding the train crisis, amidst the PP's offensive.

Barcelona / MadridThe train accidents in Adamuz (Córdoba) and on the Cercanías commuter rail line have become a major political crisis for Pedro Sánchez's government. Amidst a growing offensive by the People's Party (PP), which is escalating its rhetoric against the Prime Minister, the Moncloa Palace has announced that the Socialist leader will appear before Congress on Wednesday, February 11, at his own request, to address the train crisis. However, the chosen date has infuriated the PP, who consider it "insensitive," "cruel," and "shameful" that Sánchez "wants to wait two more weeks to explain the accidents when he could do so this week." The PP had demanded the Spanish president's appearance this Thursday in the Senate, where it holds an absolute majority, but Sánchez, who is legally entitled to do so, has circumvented the attempt by Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party to have him appear earlier.

Speaking on Cope radio, the leader of the People's Party (PP) accused Sánchez of creating a "firewall" around the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, to remove himself from the political front lines and avoid confronting the situation. Furthermore, the fact that the request for Sánchez to appear before Congress mixes explanations about Adamuz and the commuter rail network with reports on the details of the last European Council meeting is, according to Feijóo, a "humiliation to the victims." However, for now, the PP leadership's demands for Sánchez's accountability do not go any further, and in Genoa, the one they are calling for is Puente's resignation. The most belligerent voices within the party, however, are already aiming higher: at a press breakfast, Isabel Díaz Ayuso demanded that, in addition to the minister, the Spanish president himself should resign immediately.

Ayuso is once again setting the pace for the PP, although she maintains that the entire party is acting "in unison." The Madrid president has escalated her rhetoric more rapidly than Feijóo, who has used the need for "responsible" opposition as a pretext for a phased attack. The leader of the Madrid PP, in fact, has been more aligned from the outset with Vox's line of reasoning, which has been going all out since the day after the Adamuz tragedy. The far right directly blames the Spanish government for the 45 deaths, which they label "criminal negligence," and has already taken legal action against several Adif officials. The PP, which is gradually following the lead of the hardliners, "is not ruling out any action" and indicates that it "will make increasingly stringent demands" once the technical experts have issued their report. However, the explanations given so far by Puente and the other technical experts at the Ministry of Transport have not satisfied the PP, which questions the veracity of the information provided. "Puente, through his actions, and Sánchez, through his inaction, have deceived, concealed, and lied to the families of the victims and to all Spaniards," the Popular Party's deputy secretary, Juan Bravo, emphasized at a press conference. The PP has adopted a version of events disseminated yesterday by The WorldThe minister denied this, maintaining that the derailment began on an old section of track, although Puente asserts that "the lane where the derailment occurred is a new one." "There was a lack of diligence in the Ministry's actions," Bravo insisted.

"I haven't lied, nor do I have any interest in lying," he said. The minister, in an interview on TVE, asserted that he is the first to want to "know what happened" because his responsibility is "to prevent it from happening again." Puente also labeled the PP's attitude "irresponsible." Meanwhile, the PSOE, as Sánchez did this past weekend, is closing ranks with Puente: "He is an example of transparency and accountability." "Enough with the lectures, enough with the hypocrisy, and enough with exploiting pain, because the PP doesn't see victims, it sees voters," declared the Socialist spokesperson, Montse Mínguez.

ERC also demands explanations

The calls for Puente's resignation are coming not only from the PP and Vox, but also from one of the PSOE's main partners: the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, directly targeted the Minister of Transport on Sunday. After the date of Sánchez's appearance before Parliament was announced, the Republicans submitted a request demanding that both he and Puente appear before the Senate "as soon as possible." The ERC spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, reiterated his demand for accountability in a message to X.