The data on Adamuz that Sánchez is trying to cover up with his attacks against social media

In Spain, you can tell there's a political strategy to cover something up when the entire government is busy creating a smokescreen.

Sánchez threatens Spain with censorship to cover up the 47 train deaths
Spain deserves a government that monitors the railways, not opinions on social media

These past few days, Sánchez has been using social media as a smokescreen to cover up the Adamuz train accident, which resulted in 46 deaths. Even today, 10 people injured in that accident remain hospitalized, but the government has already succeeded in grabbing headlines with its attacks on social media and shifting the focus to them. A very clumsy distraction operation, as it is exposing the most authoritarian side of the left.

In fact, what Sánchez clearly intends is to impose government censorship on a medium for the free exchange of opinions and information, simply because the government cannot control the criticism leveled against it in that medium. Social media is now an important channel for obtaining information, and that bothers a government that has been breaking records for opacity.

Why is Sánchez showing a particular interest in keeping the Adamuz tragedy out of the spotlight? Firstly, because the facts we have learned so far point to a clear responsibility on the part of the government for this tragedy due to its mismanagement of the railway network. This mismanagement is reflected in the inadequate maintenance of the infrastructure by a Ministry of Transport that has been particularly affected by the corruption scandals of Spanish socialism (one of the key figures in these scandals is former Minister of Transport José Luis Ábalos). Furthermore, the accident has exposed the deplorable state of the Spanish railway network, sowing distrust among many users—a problem that affects people of all ideologies, including many left-wing voters.

This eagerness to grab headlines with social media aims to cover up and remove from public debate in Spain facts about the Adamuz accident such as the following:

• The fact that used ballast was purchased for a much higher price than new ballast for the Adamuz line. The cost was up to one million euros higher. It's worth remembering that ballast plays a crucial role in track stability and preventing cracks caused by passing trains. This fact was revealed by The Objective on February 3rd, the same day that Sánchez launched his attacks on social media. This fact was overshadowed in the media by all the headlines focused on the government's efforts to censor those networks.
• The fact that ADIF did not sanction a company for not carrying out the ballast renewal on that line on time, a company coincidentally involved in one of the corruption cases of the PSOE, the party of Pedro Sánchez, as revealed by The Objective on February 4, when the president of the government was already fully involved in his smokescreen to cover up the Adamuz accident.
• The fact that 34,000 defective sleepers have not been replaced on the Adamuz section, a fact published by the newspaper Abc on January 31, demonstrates, once again, that the claim by Minister Óscar Puente that the track had been "completely renewed" was a lie.
• ADIF confirms that Minister Óscar Puente lied when he denied that there were old rails on the track where the accident occurred. The minister had claimed that the track had been "completely renovated," but this was not true: only the points were replaced.
• The abandonment by ADIF of 4 of the 7 trains dedicated to searching for micro-cracks in the tracks, information published by the newspaper El Español on January 22nd and which was described by Minister Óscar Puente as a "hoax". Two days later the president of ADIF confirmed the information, exposing the socialist minister.
• The government's targeting of a train driver for reporting incidents on the tracks a few days after the accident, when the deplorable state of the railway infrastructure due to government mismanagement was already becoming known.

All these facts point to clear government responsibility for that accident, but despite 46 deaths and ten people still injured in the hospital, the government has already decided that this shouldn't be discussed. Well, we'll keep talking.

---

Photo: Guardia Civil.