Spanish opposition leader blames the government for Urda tragedy, citing 'obsolete' security system

On Friday, Feijóo addressed journalists to demand political accountability and warn that if the government does not resign, they will force it to resign with the general election on 29 November. "Whoever has failed in their duty to manage the Ministry of Transport with due diligence must bear the consequences. Whoever appointed them and kept them in office must bear even greater responsibility," Feijóo said.

According to him, the tragic incident cannot be classified as an inevitable tragedy or an isolated error. On the contrary, he called it a foreseeable consequence of the structural neglect of the national rail network.

The opposition drew particular attention to the failure the LZB system suffered on Wednesday. The LZB is a technical control mechanism introduced in 1992, which should have been replaced long ago by the European ERTMS standard. Due to constant delays and bureaucracy, however, this never happened.

Its fatal failure on Wednesday led to a subsequent chain of erroneous manual instructions and a tragic human error in communication regarding the management of the trains involved.

For Feijóo, it is unacceptable that Spain's high-speed network relies on technology that is four decades out of date, which leads to a proliferation of IT failures and recurring breakdowns. He pledged a "total overhaul" of the network as part of an emergency plan he is already working on, in the event that he becomes the new PM on 29 November.

"At least 69 people have died because the government failed to upgrade a system that should already have been replaced due to obsolescence," Feijóo stated, adding that the priority in the coming months and even years would be to focus on "safety" and restore public confidence in public transport.

Feijóo also spoke of Adamuz and the "right to know what happened" both in January this year and this past Wednesday in Urda. He pledged to launch an internal investigation to identify those responsible, as well as to audit the Madrid-Andalucía line, the longest-running in Spain.

In his speech, the leader of the opposition launched a scathing attack on the communication strategy of Ministry of Transport Óscar Puente. He described the government's attempt to divert attention and pin the cause of the accident on an alleged chain of human errors at Adif's control centre at the Atocha station as "deplorable, cowardly and immoral".

According to the PP, the government is desperately seeking a "scapegoat" to create a smokescreen that would protect the key political figures from a widespread management failure.

"The solution to a disaster of this magnitude does not lie in turning a blind eye and singling out a single operator when what has really failed is a technical chain of events caused by a lack of maintenance," Feijóo said.

The PP recalled that this incident comes just nine months after another serious derailment in Adamuz (Cordoba). The party highlighted that previous warnings had fallen on deaf ears.

The opposition is calling for an immediate and independent railway audit to determine the true state of the tracks and signalling systems across the country. Feijóo also called for the irrevocable resignation of Pedro Sánchez and Óscar Puente due to their "inexcusable political responsibility" for the prevailing chaos.

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