Corruption, accidents and gaffes. Sánchez’s transport disaster

Madrid. Two rail accidents in nine months have claimed 120 lives in Spain. To understand the political fallout of this tragic record, one month ahead of the elections, we need to look at the wider context – for example, the role of the Ministry of Transport during Pedro Sánchez’s eight years in government. The ministry was led by a single man from 2018 to 2021: José Luis Ábalos. Not just anyone, mind you. Sánchez relied on him when he needed to regain the leadership of the Socialist Party (PSOE), travelling the length and breadth of Spain in his now-legendary Peugeot to drum up support even in the most remote provinces. As organisational secretary and MP for the PSOE, Ábalos was also a key figure in the success of the motion of no confidence that, in 2018, toppled the centre-right government and brought the Socialists to power. In 2021, he was sidelined following a cabinet reshuffle, without any clear explanation. It was only later that allegations of corruption came to light.

Ábalos has now been sentenced to 24 years’ imprisonment for bribery; his right-hand man, Koldo García – a major rival of Isabel Pardo de Vera, former chair of Adif (the public body that manages the railway infrastructure) and subsequently Under-Secretary of State for Transport – has been sentenced to 19 years. Recently, the latter told the press about the pressure she was under to place unqualified people at the top of the organisation. Of course, hers is the perspective of a suspect trying to defend herself, but the atmosphere that emerges from the documents is one of constant tension amidst power struggles of all kinds. One of the charges relates to the recruitment of Jéssica Rodríguez – one of the escorts with whom Ábalos was seen – by two public companies. Just last Wednesday, whilst the death toll was being counted in Toledo, Jéssica returned 44,000 euros to a court in Madrid as security for any civil liability that might arise from a conviction.

Pardo de Vera pointed out that the migration from the old LZB safety system to the more modern ERTMS – which she had commissioned and funded through the NRRP – should have been completed in January. Instead, on 18 January, the first accident occurred: 46 people died at Adamuz. Two days later, in Catalonia, a train driver died when a regional train crashed into a wall.

Meanwhile, since 2023, Óscar Puente has been at the ministry – the ‘Twitter minister’, as he is known due to his constant and aggressive presence on social media platform X. He does not resign. On the contrary, he goes to Parliament and tells the opposition: ‘I annoy you because I do my job very well’. In the midst of the Ceuta migration crisis, with Sánchez under fire for having gone on holiday, Puente lets slip a few remarks in which he imagines himself as the next leader of the PSOE. Sánchez plays it down, Puente backtracks, then he is sent off as a form of punishment to give the only genuine, unscripted television interview on the Ceuta crisis, in which journalist Cristina Pardo grills him relentlessly. In October, he returned to a more familiar format: a comedy programme featuring a sketch in which he poked fun at the frequent breakdowns of his trains. He steps into a lift and the lights go out; when they come back on, he improvises a little dance.

The families of the Adamuz victims were not amused, and a week later came the Toledo accident: 74 dead. Puente presented his account of the disaster, pointing the finger at human error, without any admission of fault for a three-stage safety system that failed on all fronts. For the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, responsibility lies entirely with the worker who gave the order for the trains to set off at high speed. Not only has Puente not yet resigned, but he remains a candidate in the forthcoming general election. The PSOE’s cheerful war machine marches on.