Follow-Up: Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Carlos Cuerpo to Provisionally Run Transport Ministry After Puente Resignation
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on November 4 that Deputy Prime Minister Carlos Cuerpo, who is also minister for economy, trade and business, will provisionally run the Transport Ministry following the resignation of Transport Minister Óscar Puente over two deadly high-speed train crashes this year.
Announcing the replacement, Sánchez said Cuerpo "has shown in this legislature an enormous capacity for management and integrity." Puente's resignation will take effect once it is published in the official state gazette, and he has said he will not stand as a candidate in the snap parliamentary election scheduled for November 29.
Puente announced he was stepping down on the night of November 3, after a roughly four-hour grilling by lawmakers from a caretaker parliamentary body in which most parties demanded he take responsibility for the two disasters. He told lawmakers he had in fact made the decision in the immediate aftermath of the October 28 crash, but had first completed the emergency response, launched the initial investigation and put in place aid for victims' families and rail-safety measures.
Spain has suffered two fatal high-speed rail accidents this year. On October 28, a high-speed train collided with a stationary train near Urda in Toledo province, killing 69 people and injuring about 200. In January, a train derailed near Adamuz in Córdoba province and struck an oncoming train, killing 46. The two crashes killed 115 people combined.
Puente, a lawyer and former mayor who took the transport post in November 2023, oversaw expansion of Spain's rail network and investment backed by EU recovery funds. His departure leaves the ruling Socialists fighting the snap-election campaign without one of their most combative voices, and rail safety is expected to remain central to debate before the November 29 vote.
Source: Office of the Prime Minister of Spain
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：西班牙副首相兼经济大臣 Carlos Cuerpo 资料图。CC BY 4.0，欧洲委员会视听服务，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Carlos Cuerpo, Spain's deputy prime minister and economy minister, file photo. CC BY 4.0, European Commission Audiovisual Service, via Wikimedia Commons.
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