SPAIN APPOINTS TEMPORARY TRANSPORT MINISTER- Minister Cuerpo to assume transport minister’s portfolio after Puente’s resignation
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said today his deputy and Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo would provisionally assume the Transport Ministry’s portfolio following Oscar Puente’s resignation late on Tuesday after two deadly high-speed train crashes this year.
Puente surprised lawmakers by quietly announcing he was stepping down on Tuesday night following a tense four-hour grilling by lawmakers from a caretaker parliament body, in which most parties demanded he face responsibility for the two rail disasters that have killed 115 people combined.
One of Prime Minister Sanchez’s most loyal and high-profile ministers, Puente had previously vowed to stay on to tackle the investigation of last week’s crash and fix the system’s flaws, despite widespread calls for his exit from both the opposition and coalition partners.
