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Spain's transport minister resigns after two deadly train crashes

Published

Oscar Puente quit after a four-hour grilling by a caretaker parliament body over rail accidents that killed 115 people combined. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez named Deputy Prime Minister Carlos Cuerpo, also economy minister, to run the ministry on an interim basis.

Puente resigned six days after the second accident. Sanchez announced the change in a brief televised address on Wednesday. He said Cuerpo had shown great capacity for management and integrity in this legislature.

Opposition People's Party (PP) leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo said on X that Sanchez should do the same and resign. He wrote this in reply to a post in which Sanchez praised Puente.

Independent political analyst Eduardo Bayon said the resignation took away the main target of the PP. He said the debate would now move from who should go to what should be done. Bayon said the government must act with concrete railway security and investment measures, and that trust in high-speed rail will stay a campaign topic ahead of the election on 29 November.

Key facts

Who
Pedro Sanchez (Prime Minister of Spain); Carlos Cuerpo (Deputy Prime Minister and economy minister, appointed interim transport minister); Oscar Puente (Transport minister, resigned); Alberto Nunez Feijoo (leader of the opposition People's Party (PP))
What
Transport minister Oscar Puente resigned after a grilling by a caretaker parliament body over two high-speed rail crashes that have killed 115 people combined. Sanchez said his deputy Carlos Cuerpo, who is also economy minister, will provisionally run the transport ministry.
When
4 November 2026
Where
Spain, Urda, Madrid-Seville line
Status
Reported

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