Spain train disaster clouds Sánchez chances of re-election
0 / 58
English
中文
The breaking news from Spain this week was shocking but also shockingly familiar: another collision on the high-speed rail line south from Madrid, with reports of dozens killed.
（暂无翻译）
It is just nine months since two trains crashed near Cordoba, killing 46 people. Now 69 bodies have been recovered here in central Spain, from wreckage strewn over the tracks and down an embankment.
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
For the victims' families it is devastating; a personal tragedy.
（暂无翻译）
But it is also a national disaster that has shattered confidence in the country's rail network and the Socialist-led government of Pedro Sánchez. It is playing out just weeks before the snap general election he called.
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
Pedro Sánchez was already facing public anger over alleged corruption and housing costs The formal investigation into the Toledo train disaster has only just been launched but the government has been quick to take control of the narrative.
（暂无翻译）
From the first hours after the collision, Transport Minister Oscar Puente began suggesting "human error" was to blame, batting responsibility as far as possible from the cabinet.
（暂无翻译）
On Friday, he appeared before the press for a second time to set out what he called the "objective facts" of the crash and counter a surge of criticism against the government.
（暂无翻译）
The opposition People's Party (PP) is among those calling for his resignation as a "moral" and "ethical" move.
（暂无翻译）
Instead after expressing "huge pain and sadness" for the victims, Puente went on the offensive.
（暂无翻译）
He rejected talk of chronic underinvestment in infrastructure and insisted that Spain's high-speed signalling safety system, the LZB, was neither old nor inadequate: Germany and Austria use the same.
（暂无翻译）
In Spain, it has already failed 170 times so far this year, he revealed, but called that "normal" and around the EU average.
（暂无翻译）
The problem surrounds what happens next - when the system fails and control of the line shifts to manual.
（暂无翻译）
In this case, the minister highlighted a series of human errors that proved catastrophic.
（暂无翻译）
Listen: Audio recordings between train driver and controller Crucially, at one point a controller instructed a stalled train to restart, clearing it to advance at up to 160km/h (100 mph) even though a second train was stuck on the line up ahead.
（暂无翻译）
The impending collision was clear from audio calls and on big screens in the control centre in Madrid.
（暂无翻译）
"They worked. We checked.
（暂无翻译）
They could see what was happening," Puente confirmed.
（暂无翻译）
But the advancing train was never ordered to stop. "I'm no judge... But these are the facts."
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
So would he take personal and political responsibility anyway, and resign? Puente called it his "duty", rather, to remain as minister.
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
"I'll face up to things, explain, elucidate," he countered. "I'll think how to improve the system, and give confidence to those who want to travel by train and feel calm and safe."
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
But Spaniards will take a lot of persuading. "This is not only a very serious accident, but the second in a very short time," Paco Camas of the pollster Ipsos points out.
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
An investigation into January's crash in Adamuz, near Cordoba, is still open, with initial reports suggesting there was a crack in the rails - very different to the latest collision.
（暂无翻译）
"It destroys people's confidence not only in the railways but institutions in general," Camas warns.
（暂无翻译）
"And in Spain when such things happen, we know that people blame their government."
（暂无翻译）
For Team Sánchez it is the latest in a spiral of crises. Allegations of corruption against the prime minister's close relatives still persist, all denied.
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
Then there was a sudden influx of migrants from Morocco this summer to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta.
（暂无翻译）
That got right-wing opponents shouting about incompetence and underfunding.
（暂无翻译）
Later, a video of a pensioner being forcibly evicted from her home went viral and sparked street protests. That's when Sánchez called an early election.
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
His chances of winning the vote looked slim even before the train crash.
（暂无翻译）
Now they have plummeted.
（暂无翻译）
The death of Maricarmen Abascal, evicted from her home of more than 70 years, sparked widespread housing protests across Spain Most recent polls showed the centre-right PP coming first and forming a coalition with the far-right Vox. "They have this majority in almost 95% of the simulations we have done," Prof Pablo Simon of Madrid's Carlos III University explains.
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
But Sánchez had been running a positive campaign, trying to lure apathetic voters to the polls to vote socialist.
（暂无翻译）
"They've totally lost control of the agenda and the emotion of this campaign," Simon says.
（暂无翻译）
"It's going to be extremely difficult now.
（暂无翻译）
There is this general mood of decay, of a country that's not working properly.
（暂无翻译）
A depression." There have already been small protests over the train crash led by far-right groups in Madrid and large numbers of police are on stand-by this weekend ahead of further potential clashes, organised online. "We all travelled in silence and really sad," Paloma told me at the city station, where she had just pulled in on a half empty train. She admitted she's scared of the high-speed network now and angry at the government.
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译） （暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
"This crash will change all of our votes, completely," Paloma said.
（暂无翻译）
"We'll shift from the left wing to the right.
（暂无翻译）
Because of everything that's happened."
（暂无翻译）
Lucia takes the high-speed AVE into Madrid each day, and is scared too. "This was human error. But there's been two accidents now with more than 100 dead," she says.
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
"Things here are really bad.
（暂无翻译）
They have to change." Producer Davide Ghiglione contributed to this report Audio reveals exchanges between Spain train operators and drivers moments before deadly crash Spain transport minister says he won't resign over high-speed rail disaster
（暂无翻译） （暂无翻译）
仅供学习使用，如有侵权请联系删除 · 查看原文