Deep crisis in the Government. The design error in the narrow-gauge trains for Cantabria and Asturias has led to the resignation of two heavyweights in the Government and one of the main public companies. The Secretary of State for Transport, Isabel Pardo de Vera, and the president of Renfe, Isaías Táboas, presented their resignation on Monday, according to sources from the Ministry of Transport. The minister has accepted and signed the dismissals in a Solomonic decision.
Transport has an investigation underway to clarify responsibilities after the error in the trains for Cantabria and Asturias. A design flaw that will cause the convoys to reach the roads of both communities in 2026, two years late. The affected governments feel aggrieved and are being especially combative, also that of Adrián Barbón, from the PSOE itself, who stated a few days ago that "Pardo de Vera is the best ally that Asturias has." The dismissal of two intermediate technicians has already occurred, but today the departures already reach political positions, according to Cadena Ser.
The Ministry officially describes the departures as "relief". "Minister Raquel Sánchez has accepted this morning the resignations of the current Secretary of State of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda and former president of Adif, Isabel Pardo de Vera, and of the president of Renfe, Isaías Taboas", indicates a statement official.
Raquel Sánchez "has transferred her recognition and gratitude to both of them for the work carried out in their respective positions". "The relief will allow to implement a change with which the Ministry wants to start a new stage both in the Secretary of State and in the railway operator," adds the department.
Isabel Pardo de Vera has not even mentioned the problem of the Asturias and Cantabria trains in her resignation, according to the content of the letter to which La Vanguardia has had access. The former Secretary of State has made it clear in the document signed in her own handwriting that she always said that "she would be in office as long as she had your confidence [that of Raquel Sánchez] and that of the Government" and that she would not have any attachment to it in case at some point it ceased to be so. That moment has arrived this Monday.
Pardo de Vera has transferred to the minister "the best of luck for all the challenges that remain to be addressed in the ministry." And she has stated that she is sure that they will know how to move them all forward thanks to the work of the "magnificent professionals with whom I have had the pleasure of working". She also wanted to make it clear that the important thing in life is to be "congruent with oneself, keeping intact the values in which one believes". The Galician had come to sound like a possible signing for the PSOE of Galicia.
The departure of Pardo de Vera means a significant loss for Raquel Sánchez. The number two in the department was president of Adif at the time the error with the controversial contract became known and that, according to sources around her, could have weighed on the final decision. The minister loses her number two in the face of the final stretch of the legislature at a transcendental moment, in full negotiation of the housing law or the design of the future toll model and coinciding with the distribution of European funds.
Isabel Pardo de Vera was a person, in fact, of the utmost confidence of Raquel Sánchez. So much so that during the time that she was on leave recovering from a health problem, the minister did not appoint a substitute for her. "She has the ministry in her head", they indicated from her surroundings and she was the first to make a move after learning about the mistake that was made with the trains. Transport took control of the contract and sent its collaborator, Xavier Flores, Secretary General of Infrastructures, to meet with the Cantabrian and Asturian executives.
The problem was a gauge error. Incorrectly measured trains were designed that could have a height drawback on narrow tracks. The Ministry had been fully aware of the situation for at least more than two years. The Transport tenant, when the problem was detected, was José Luis Ábalos and the Secretary of State, Pedro Saura.
Since the beginning of the mandate of Raquel Sánchez and Isabel Pardo de Vera, it was therefore known that this contract had a measurement problem. Nadia did nothing, despite the fact that the railway safety agency recommended using the so-called "comparative method", which consists of using a train already running on the tracks to be inspired by it. It was not done.
Isaías Táboas, for his part, was president of Renfe since Pedro Sánchez arrived at La Moncloa, in June 2018.
