Spanish Transport Minister Puente has resigned following the train crash in Toledo. Sánchez: “Thank you for everything, comrade”

“I wish to announce that I am resigning not only from my post as Minister of Transport, but also from my position as the Socialist Party’s lead candidate for Valladolid in the general election on 29 November.” With these words, Oscar Puente, Spain’s Transport Minister, announced his resignation yesterday at the end of a four-hour hearing before the Standing Committee of the Spanish Congress of Deputies on the rail accident in Urda, in the province of Toledo, which claimed at least 69 lives on 28 October. "I had made the decision regarding my future," he said, "in the first few minutes following the tragedy," which occurred nine months after the collision on 18 January in Adamuz (Córdoba) between an Alvia train and an Iryo Frecciarossa, on the same Madrid–Seville high-speed line, which claimed the lives of 46 people. "A Transport Minister in a country like Spain cannot remain in office after two accidents in less than a year," Puente explained in his response to the spokespeople for the political parties, who had called for his resignation en masse, with the exception of representatives from the Socialist Party and the Basque radical left-wing party EH Bildu.

A member of the PSOE and former mayor of Valladolid from 2015 to 2023, as well as Minister of Transport since 2023, Puente – nicknamed the ‘Twitter minister’ due to his frequent and combative presence on social media platform X – defended his actions amidst cross-accusations from the opposition. He devoted the first part of the hearing to explaining the work carried out on the Madrid–Seville line and the measures approved by the government to improve rail safety, including the strengthening of safety protocols; amongst the measures introduced, a revision of safety protocols, involving “the introduction of dual human validation” of decisions taken by control centres when, following a signalling system failure, rail traffic is authorised to resume. And, as she had already done yesterday following the Council of Ministers meeting, she outlined the initiatives adopted by the government – including the reduction in train frequencies on the Madrid–Seville line – promising: “We will work tirelessly to restore the public’s confidence.”

Nothing has been enough to quell the criticism. The People’s Party has been particularly scathing, with spokesperson Ester Muñoz accusing Puente of prioritising communication over management. “She’s very good at explaining why people are dying, but very bad at preventing them from dying,” she accused. Vox, through its spokesperson Pepa Millan, pressed the minister: “Can you sleep with 116 deaths on your conscience?”

Criticism has also come from the ruling coalition and its allies. Sumar, a Spanish left-wing political party, has called for a fully publicly-owned rail system. The ERC party has denounced the network as a ‘Russian roulette’ and called for an emergency maintenance plan, whilst Podemos, the Spanish far-left party founded in 2014, has criticised the liberalisation and outsourcing of maintenance. The Catalan nationalist party Junts blamed successive Spanish governments, while the Basque nationalist party PNV called on the minister to take responsibility.

“Oscar Puente stood up for what he believed in, offered solutions and, ultimately, stepped down. Out of dignity. Of his own free will. Out of respect for the victims and the progressive project,” wrote Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in X, commenting on the Transport Minister’s resignation. “Politicians like him bring honour to our country and show us that we are not all the same. Whilst some merely preach, others give their all. Thank you for everything, comrade,” he added. Since the Urda rail accident, the Spanish Prime Minister has defended the Transport Minister’s handling of the situation, whilst emphasising that “a country like Spain cannot afford to have two accidents of this severity in less than a year”. A defence that has become increasingly untenable with three weeks to go before the snap election on 29 November.