The Association of Victims of Adamuz says Óscar Puente’s Renfe joke was insensitive and is demanding his immediate resignation or dismissal. The minister made the gag in a laSexta promotion for ‘Cara al show’.
In a promotion scheduled for Wednesday, 39 days before the elections, Óscar Puente enters a mock lift and asks to go to laSexta. The lift breaks down. The clip has prompted the Association of Victims of Adamuz to demand that the Transport Minister resign or be dismissed. The association condemned the promotional video on 20 October 2026, months after the crash.
The association called Puente’s attitude insensitive. Mario Samper, president of the Asociación de Víctimas del Descarrilamiento de Adamuz and a survivor of the January crash, said the minister’s remarks showed he was unfit to remain in charge of the ministry. The accident took place in Adamuz, Córdoba province, on 18 January 2026, killing 46 people. Samper described the video as “incredible” and “inadmissible” and said the association was demanding Puente’s resignation or dismissal.
The sketch lasts less than a minute. An announcement says the lift will be stopped longer than usual because of a system fault, prompting Puente to joke about Renfe. When the lift starts moving again, he attributes the pause to a drop in blood pressure. He then dances with Marc Giró and the programme’s cat to a version of Meghan Trainor’s ‘Made You Look’. The Renfe line follows the lift’s technical fault. The association said the minister was making light of the difficulties facing the rail operator.
Puente shared the promotion on his personal X account with a brief comment about whether he would survive it. The clip’s light tone has drawn criticism from Adamuz victims as investigations into the crash continue. Guardia Civil investigators are examining railway infrastructure at the derailment site, including sleepers and ballast, as part of the inquiry into the circumstances of the accident.
The judicial and technical investigations are separate. EFE reported that the technical inquiry was considered “exceptionally complex” and would not be completed within the statutory 12-month period. The extension was attributed to the complexity of examining the crash, rather than to a final finding on responsibility. No final technical conclusion on the cause had been published by the time of the reports.
Opposition figures have also attacked the sketch. Vox leader Santiago Abascal accused Puente of mocking the state of the railway and Adamuz, saying the minister was “laughing at the state of the tracks, laughing at Adamuz and laughing at the people”. He urged voters to express their view at the ballot box. The PP of Madrid also criticised the minister, saying he was making jokes about Renfe accidents after 46 deaths and approximately 400 injuries; the party cited that injury figure in its criticism.
