Aitor Esteban considers "absolutely necessary and obligatory" Óscar Puente's resignation and places the replacement as a political demand that, in his opinion, still weighs even more on the PSOE in the middle of the pre-campaign for the general elections on November 29.
The president of the PNV's EBB made this assessment in an interview on TVE, reported by Europa Press, and defended that his party called for the assumption of political responsibilities from the very beginning after the serious accident in Urda, Toledo.
The PNV raises the bar for responsibilities after Urda and Adamuz
Esteban maintained that accidents "of this magnitude," also referring to the one in Adamuz, oblige citizens to have the certainty that there will be a technical examination and the necessary corrections. The demand does not remain on the political level: the Jeltzale leader emphasizes that there must be a technical review and concrete changes.
He also insisted on the need for political leaders to "step aside." According to his interpretation, this gesture was obligatory and, in the case of the PSOE, even more relevant due to the electoral moment. "I have also heard many people who, before the resignation, defended that it should not happen and now they are saying exactly the opposite," he pointed out, while reproaching some of these speeches for a lack of coherence.
The PNV leader took the opportunity to question the orientation of infrastructure policy. In his opinion, the emphasis has been placed for years on generalized discounts that, in some years, would have even exceeded maintenance investments.
Esteban defended discounts when applied to frequent travelers or when they can be discriminated by income, but regretted that they have been extended indiscriminately over a network that, he said, needed maintenance. The debate, he added, is not only about political image, but about management priorities.
Carlos Cuerpo enters as a provisional solution, while the campaign continues to shift focus
Regarding the appointment of Carlos Cuerpo to take over Transport, Esteban considered that Pedro Sánchez "gets through the moment" with that solution, instead of appointing another minister for a very short period. Even so, he valued the decision as understandable.
The PNV leader described Cuerpo as an objective, serene person with public presence, although he made it clear that his replacement is circumstantial. If the next Government continued to be led by the PSOE, he affirmed, Cuerpo would not be the one managing that portfolio.
Esteban also took the opportunity to question the ministry's structure. He said that he is surprised that such a complex department, with so many officials and so much responsibility, has only one Secretary of State, something that, he assured, he has never understood.
In the final stretch of his speech, he took for granted that the pre-campaign has already gone through "many screens," with issues such as Ceuta, the Maricarmen case, housing, or the riots in several cities of the State, in addition to what is happening in Europe. In his opinion, when the campaign starts and gains speed in the last two weeks, all these issues will return to public debate, although he did not rule out that another unexpected issue might appear and move to the forefront.