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Battle
lines redrawn in Spain’s snap election after latest train disaster
Sam Jonesin Madrid
Next
month’s poll no longer the contest it was, as Pedro Sánchez finds himself
forced to defend government’s safety record
Fri 30 Oct
2026 07.00 CET
One of the
most dependable cliches of contemporary Spanish politics is that it never
pays to bet against Pedro Sánchez. Time and time again – as leader of the
Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) and as prime minister – Sánchez has
shown an almost preternatural ability to profit from adversity, and to confound
expectations and wrongfoot his opponents.
But next
month’s snap
general election, called by Sánchez after rightwing and far-right parties voted
down the housing reforms his coalition government had announced in response
to angry
protests, may suddenly not be the contest it once was.
Wednesday’s deadly
rail collision, in which at least 69 people died, has, for the moment at
least, subdued much of the vicious language and posturing that has come to
characterise recent elections. The crash could sap Sánchez’s recently resurgent
momentum and the issue of rail safety now threatens to overshadow his attempts
to defend his record and remain in the Moncloa palace.
The poll the
left had billed as a last chance to stop the conservative People’s party (PP)
joining forces with the rightwing Vox party to roll back decades of social
progress – and which the right had billed as an opportunity to end eight years
of what it disdainfully calls sanchismo – will now take place in a
country deep in shock and grief.
Not only has
Spain’s extensive high-speed railway long
been a source of national pride, it is also a transport network that
millions of Spaniards depend on for work, holidays and family visits. This
week’s crash, after another on the same line that killed
46 people in January, has left people angry, bewildered and worried.
Emergency
crews on Thursday work to remove the wreckage of two high-speed trains from the
crash site in Urda, Toledo. Photograph: Burak Akbulut/Anadolu/Getty Images
Thursday’s
headlines spoke for themselves. El Mundo’s front page lamented “Another
massacre on the trains”; ABC’s noted “At least 68 dead nine months on”, while
El País mourned the “Second high-speed catastrophe in less than a year.”
Even before Wednesday’s
terrible events on the outskirts of Urda, Sánchez and his allies were
facing a battle. As well as the housing protests, the prime minister has had to
contend with a
slew of corruption allegations surrounding his family and inner circle,
while his government’s handling of the mass
crossing into Spain’s north African territory of Ceuta over the summer had
been fiercely criticised at home and abroad.
Pablo Simón,
a political scientist at the Carlos III University of Madrid, stressed the
delicacy of the moment, saying that people across Spain were still struggling
to come to terms with what had happened this week.
“There are a
lot of fronts [for the government] here, and I think this accident has a
twofold impact,” he said. “First, it draws attention to the state of railway
infrastructure, suggesting that the problem is structural, and pointing to a
broader decline in public services in Spain, specifically regarding
infrastructure.”
Simón said
that Sánchez’s government, which has been in power since 2018, could not blame
the state of things on its PP predecessor, which carried out austerity cuts.
“That’s simply not credible,” he said.
“But there’s
also a second issue: even before this, the government faced an uphill battle;
it was already highly unlikely that they could secure the necessary support.”
Sánchez has
said it is “unacceptable” for the country to experience two high-speed rail
disasters in less than a year, and promised to strengthen safety measures “so
that something like this never happens again”, but his opponents say that is
simply not good enough.
The PP
leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said on Thursday that any politician found to be
responsible for the crash would be held to account, adding: “We can’t go on
like this; this kind of management just can’t carry on.” According to the PP,
Spaniards are not asking for “miracles; they’re just asking for a Spain where
things work again”.
The PP
leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, also visited the scene on Thursday. Photograph:
Pablo Blázquez Domínguez/Getty Images
Vox, on the
other hand, is going all out, accusing the government of “killing” the train
crash victims and of systemic mismanagement and cronyism. It has also urged the
supreme court to investigate Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, on
suspicion of manslaughter and causing bodily harm through gross negligence.
Puente has rejected allegations of mismanagement, insisting that Spain’s
railway system is “safe and reliable”.
Simón said
the contrasting reactions of the PP and Vox reflected splits on the right, as
both parties compete to put an end to Sánchez’s government: “The question
becomes what tone should one adopt: a more institutional one, which is what the
PP is currently attempting, or a tougher, more aggressive one, which is what
Vox is doing?”
He also
suggested the sombre national mood could make it very hard for Sánchez to rally
as many as 1.2 million “politically dormant” but PSOE-leaning voters, on whom
he had been counting. The electoral event the prime minister had hoped to
portray as a Manichean clash between progressives and reactionaries, fought
over issues of housing and equality, has morphed into something else.
“An election
campaign relies on high spirits and a sense of optimism,” Simón said. “But how
can that exist when the entire country is in mourning over this tragedy?”
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