Prime Minister and Socialist candidate in the general elections of November 29, Pedro Sánchez, will resume the pre-election campaign with a rally in Valencia next Friday, November 6. OKDIARIO has been able to confirm this. The event comes just ten days after the railway tragedy of Wednesday, October 28, in Urda, in the province of Toledo, with at least 69 dead and another 41 people hospitalized, according to the information available.
Joining Sánchez at the event will be the secretary general of the Valencian Socialists, Diana Morant, and the PSOE's list leader for the province of Valencia, Pilar Bernabé. According to the published information, the lineup could be expanded. The exact venue of the rally is not yet known; the sources consulted doubt it will take place at the Palau de les Arts, where Sánchez has spoken during previous campaigns. In the last European elections, the president's rally in Valencia took place at the La Rambleta cultural center.
The accident was caused by a violent collision between two high-speed trains, a Renfe and an Iryo. According to the data gathered, it is already one of the deadliest railway accidents in Spain's history. On Monday, the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Toledo and Ciudad Real had identified 66 of the 69 dead. The number of hospitalized people has fallen in recent hours: 29 people remain admitted, 20 in conventional beds and 9 in the ICU. Since Wednesday, there have been 81 discharges and 110 people have been treated in hospitals in Castilla-La Mancha. Rescue teams continue the searches and the complex identifications.
Sánchez resumed his official agenda on Monday with his participation in the World in Progress Barcelona 2026 forum, his first public appearance since the accident. There he announced that the Council of Ministers will approve an aid decree for the victims that will double the amount of the compulsory passenger insurance. The decree will be based on the aid shield the Executive activated after the previous railway accident in Adamuz (Córdoba), and will consist of four pillars: double the compulsory insurance, a specific mechanism for advancing compensation, a temporary disability procedure with improved coverage, and the opening of comprehensive care offices in the delegations and sub-delegations of the autonomous communities where those affected reside.
The handling of the crisis is at the center of the political debate. According to OKDIARIO, the prime minister is considering dismissing the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, after receiving a poll that places the PSOE below 95 seats, a figure that has caused great concern within the Executive less than a month before the elections. For its part, the leader of the People's Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has harshly criticized the government over its handling of the accident and demands accountability from Minister Puente. Feijóo launched the Popular Party's campaign in Valencia two weeks before Sánchez's visit, at an event also held at the Palau de les Arts.
Meanwhile, the operator Iryo has sent a letter to the State Railway Safety Agency (AESF) calling for new safety protocols after the accident. Among its proposals is limiting speed to 40 kilometers per hour when the LZB system fails, with the aim of applying more restrictive circulation conditions as a precaution. The Railway Engineers' Union (Semaf) had recently made a similar request.