The second serious train accident with dozens of deaths this year hits Spain shortly before the parliamentary elections on November 29th. While the Ministry of Transport cites human error as the preliminary cause, unions complain about the privatization of the rail network. In the following days, train drivers called for strikes.

On the route between Madrid and Seville there was a serious train accident near the town of Urda on Wednesday morning, leaving at least 69 dead and more than 100 injured. After a previous system failure, a high-speed train crashed into another that was still on the route. High-speed traffic on the route has been suspended for the time being and the country is in national mourning for three days.

The second train accident on the same route comes at a politically explosive moment: there are early parliamentary elections in Spain on November 29th. At the same time, the unions are calling for a general strike before the election. The reason is the horrendously rising rental prices in Spain: After a tight...DoublingOf the rents over the last ten years, tenants there now pay a national average of 14.69 euros per square meter.

There was already a serious train accident on the route in January, near the town of Adamuz, in which 46 people were killed. As a result, a modernization offensive should begin and more forces should be hired. This was mainly fought for by the unions, which had announced several days of strike.

At the time, the CGT, SIndicato Ferroviario and Alferro unions, which were excluded from the negotiations, described the agreement as a “worthless piece of paper” that only recorded promises, working groups and future commitments. Now they raise the question of how much of the promised funds have been spent in the meantime.

Fascist protests and strikes by train drivers

Meanwhile, the fatal train accident sparked protests. That same evening, the fascist groups Falange and Revuelta brought about 1,000 people to the Ministry of Transportonto the street. Hitler salutes, racist slogans and flags with the face of former fascist dictator Francisco Franco were heard at the protests. The meeting was later dispersed using tear gas.

On October 29th and the following days, several train drivers from various companies went on strike.SEMAF, the largest union of drivers in Spain, accuses the Ministry of Transport and other authorities of failing to implement promises on safety, storm protocols and new train drivers.The work stoppagehad already been announced on October 16th, a few days before the accident.

The political situation: shift to the right and rent war

The situation in political Madrid is tense: after the sensational eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, protests broke out across the country. After 70 years in her apartment, the tenant could no longer afford the rent, which the real estate fund Urbagestión steadily increased to 2,650 euros. A few days after the eviction, the pensioner died in hospital.

The protest eventually became so widespread that Prime Minister Sanchez initially tried twoDecreesto alleviate the rent price crisis with the help of Parliament. The main content of this was the suspension of evictions and the restriction of speculation with living space.

Rent crisis, new elections and general strike in Spain

However, the decrees failed, among other things, due to the blockade by the Junts, a Catalan separatist party that left the government and is economically more right-wing. Since the Junts left, Prime Minister Sanchez has led a minority government and is dependent on votes from the opposition.

In response to failed attempts to find a parliamentary response to the protests, Sanchez called new elections for the end of November. The topic of his social democratic Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE, German Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) is clearly the rent crisis.

Nevertheless, the conservative People's Party PP is currently leading in the polls, followed by the fascist Vox party. While the former paused their election campaign for the time being after the train accident, they would like tofascist forceson the contrary, get more voices out of the event. In doing so, they build on previous onesCorruption scandalsthe PSOE and attribute the train accident to the embezzlement of state funds.

Urda and Adamuz: Two sides of the same coin?

Prime Minister Sanchez and Transport Minister Óscar Puente are now looking for the cause in the workers in the control center. After the systems failed, they reopened the route, but there were “some things that were inexplicable”.

In both accidents, in January and yesterday, a private Iryo high-speed train and a state-owned Renfe train collided. However, a defective track was identified as the cause in January. At that time, the two trains also came opposite each other, i.e. on two different tracks. The Iryo train eventually derailed into the other train next to it.

Now both trains were on the same route, but, as can be seen from public recordings of the conversations between the control center and both trains, the control center instructed the rear train to continue driving at a normal, high speed, which eventually drove into the front train. It is questionable how the error occurred, but the recordings show a hectic working atmosphere in the control center due to the failure of the LZB control system.

The train drivers' unionSEMAFhad already denounced the disastrous situation of the Spanish high-speed network in August last year. They felt that wayunion, the workers: the increasing load on hundreds of trains on the routes, a lack of staff in all areas, the neglect of preventive maintenance, workshops in a pitiful condition and the outsourcing of work tasks. It is, the union said, a model aimed at “turning the railway into a business where the cake is divided among hundreds of private companies”.

In fact, the official data from the network operator and the European regulator shows: where the European average2022While investments and maintenance cost over 191,000 euros per kilometer, the Spanish state only spends around 95,000 euros.

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