Feijóo attacks Óscar Puente and the PSOE at Valladolid rally after Urda rail crash

Campaign restarts in Valladolid

Alberto Núñez Feijóo resumed his pre-campaign events on Saturday, 7 November 2026, with a rally in Valladolid, almost two weeks after his previous one. The events had been suspended after the rail crash at Urda (Toledo) on 28 October, when an AVE high-speed train and an Iryo train collided and 69 people died. Feijóo said the date had been fixed long before the accident and that the rally was not aimed at any one person. The rally took place in pavilion 4 of the Feria de Muestras, where the PP is competing for five seats and hopes to win a third. Valladolid is also the home city of Óscar Puente, who was its mayor for eight years.

Puente's resignation and the hugs remark

Óscar Puente resigned as transport minister after more than four hours before the Permanent Deputation of Congress, where he explained his management of the crash. The deadlines for candidate lists had passed, so he could not be removed and will head the PSOE list in Valladolid. Pedro Sánchez, speaking in Valencia on 6 November, used the resignation as an electoral weapon against the PP and Vox. Feijóo replied that the PSOE and its partners had given the former minister more hugs than the victims received attention.

“We have seen more hugs from the PSOE and its partners for the minister who resigned than for the victims.”

Feijóo said the resignation came too late, after what he called 116 victims, although other reports give 69 dead in the crash. He argued that the dignified course would have been to apologise, and he went further by mocking the PSOE for preparing to canonise Puente in St Peter's Basilica. He said the PSOE had already named Puente a 'blessed' and was about to make him a saint.

Audit, prison warning and investigations

Feijóo promised that a PP government would audit the railway down to the last sleeper, including transport and safety systems. He warned the socialists in these words:

“If they have diverted the money to steal the safety of Spaniards, they will have to leave power to go to prison.”

He said he had received a victim of the crash in his office, who asked him to place people who know the sector in key posts. He also referred to the former PP minister Fátima Báñez, who was travelling in one of the wrecked carriages. According to La Vanguardia, the European Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating possible irregularities in contract awards for the Madrid-Seville line, and the Guardia Civil's UCO has requested information from Adif in the Koldo case. Feijóo said he would make sure everyone took responsibility for what happened.

Ceuta, pensions and the 29 November call

Feijóo turned to Ceuta, saying the city was still waiting and claiming that more than 100,000 people had entered and that Moroccan police had been ordering the invasion. El Confidencial reports that around 80,000 people entered the city about one hundred days before the rally, a figure that differs from Feijóo's. On pensions, Feijóo corrected PP spokesperson Ester Muñoz, who had warned weeks earlier that the system would collapse, and promised that pensions would rise with the CPI. He also called for social mobilisation on 29 November, saying the public should be woken from complacency and that young people cannot change the world from their parents' bedrooms.