During the control session in the Congress of Deputies this Wednesday, Puente responded to questions from PP deputies, Elías Bendodo and Eduardo Carazo, who demanded his resignation. The popular party members argued that the track was already damaged 22 hours before the incident and that Adif could have prevented it.
However, the minister reiterated, as has Adif president, Pedro Marco, that there is no conclusive evidence that the track was broken in advance. He explained that the Guardia Civil's conclusion was based on a voltage drop record from a Hitachi tool, designed to locate trains, not to detect track breakages.
Puente accused the PP of accepting unverified elements in the investigation as facts and counter-attacked by citing a statement from the victims of the Adamuz accident. This document denounced the scarcity of resources of the Andalusian emergency service that day, which allegedly caused a delay in attention and a possible increase in the number of affected individuals.
“"When will Mr. Moreno Bonilla, his counselor, and the Government of Andalusia assume their corresponding responsibility, which is nothing less than providing urgent explanations to the victims of Adamuz regarding this gross negligence, as I have done since the first day of the investigation? I am not asking him to resign; I am only asking for one very simple thing: that he come out and respond to these accusations."
The minister read an excerpt from the victims' statement, detailing that emergency personnel had to manage calls "with paper and pencil" due to a computer system blockage, using personal phones and without contact with the 112 coordination center. The text also suggested that the lack of coordination and immediate assistance could have led to more victims or more severely injured individuals.
Elsewhere in the debate, Puente responded to PP deputy, Mirian Guardiola, who criticized rising taxes and service quality. The minister highlighted that infrastructure investment in Spain has increased from 1.8 billion euros in 2017, under the PP government, to 5.2 billion euros projected for 2025, defending the current administration's management.
