Feijóo tries to corner Sánchez over the trains: "It's not bad luck, it's mismanagement"

MadridOnce the official mourning period for the Adamuz (Córdoba) train tragedy was over, Alberto Núñez Feijóo officially declared it concluded. the partial truce with the Spanish government And he appeared at the party's state headquarters—in previous days he had left press conferences to secondary figures—with the aim of cornering Pedro Sánchez over his handling of the crisis. In the opinion of the PP leader, this "black week" will be "a turning point" for the Spanish Prime Minister. "He has completely destroyed any remaining confidence in his leadership," the leader of the opposition emphasized, who believes that what has happened "is not bad luck" but rather "blatant incompetence" and "poor politics." Although Feijóo is currently resisting calling for resignations—citing the need for "responsible opposition"—the PP leader maintains that now is the time for Sánchez to give explanations. Feijóo has requested an extraordinary plenary session next week in Congress for Sánchez to appear and has warned that, should the majority that supported his investiture prevent it, he will force him to do so in the Senate, where the PP holds an absolute majority. Sánchez responded by submitting a request to appear before Parliament, which, according to parliamentary sources, will not happen before February, a situation that clashes with the Popular Party's demands. Meanwhile, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, ruled out resigning, arguing that he has not contributed to the train accidents, either through action or inaction. For the Popular Party, it is urgent to question the Spanish president. "These are not isolated incidents; it is a general symptom" of the "collapse" of public services, said Feijóo, who opined that "the state of the tracks reflects the state of the nation." The public outcry generated by the catastrophe on the Madrid-Andalusia line, exacerbated by the two commuter rail accidents and the one in Cartagena (Murcia), has turned the issue into a way to further weaken Sánchez, and the Popular Party does not intend to let it go to waste. The Popular Party, which began the year pressuring the Spanish president with allegations of corruption within the Socialist Party (PSOE) and with Venezuela—having already demanded his appearance before Congress on these two issues before even two weeks had passed in 2026—is now seizing on the railway "chaos." This front adds to the ever-growing list of headaches for the Socialist leader and has overshadowed the other hot potatoes that have marked this tumultuous start to the year and the legislature in general. Meanwhile, Sánchez, speaking from Brussels early this morning, asserted that his government is assuming all its responsibilities "from the very beginning" following the train accident in Adamuz: "We assume them all, as we have been doing since the first moment of the tragedy," he said. "The damage is irreparable, but the victims will always have the government's support in whatever is necessary, and [...] we will respond as we have responded to any of the crises we have faced," he added. The People's Party (PP) argues that it has been asking for months about the "breakdowns, delays, and maintenance" of the railway network without receiving any satisfactory response. A PP senator, in fact, shared on X a statement he made during the question period on December 2nd, addressed to Puente, in which he denounced him and declared: "I hope that, because of Sánchez and all of you, we don't have to lament any misfortune." "It was to be expected," stated the Murcian parliamentarian Francisco Bernabé.

While in Genoa they are gradually deploying their attack artillery against Sánchez, focusing on the trains, Isabel Díaz Ayuso is going a step further than the Popular Party leadership, as usual, with a discourse in line with that of the far right. While Feijóo has postponed the "demand for accountability," the Madrid president argued from the Fitur international tourism fair that it is "normal" to demand it. "I don't know why this law of silence prevails," she lamented.

Vox is going all out.

While the PP offered only a half-hearted opposition, Vox didn't hesitate to go all out from the very beginning. The tone of Santiago Abascal's party has been... in crescendo To the point that they have announced a lawsuit for manslaughter, among other crimes related to an alleged "lack of maintenance" of the infrastructure, against the current president of Adif, Marco de la Peña, and against Isabel Pardo de Vera, who held the position between 2018 and 2021 and is already under investigation by Ábalos. "Corruption kills," the party leader emphasized at an event in Aragon, where they are the only ones who did not halt their pre-campaign due to the mourning and have been using the catastrophe for days. to boost their electoral prospects.