MADRID — A train collision that killed 45 people in southern Spain this month is piling even more political pressure on the struggling, Socialist-led government of Pedro Sánchez. Sánchez is already weaker than at any point during his eight years in power thanks to a string of corruption and sexual harassment scandals that have rocked his party over the past year. Sensing its moment to open another line of attack, the opposition is now seizing on the rail tragedy of Jan. 18 to accuse the government of neglecting vital public services. “It’s a general symptom of the fact that essential public services that depend on the government are not working,” said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative opposition People’s Party (PP). “It’s proof of their collapse. The state of the railway track reflects the state of the country.” The far-right Vox party also slammed the accident as “criminal incompetence” on the part of the government. Political analysts did not expect the political tussles over the rail disaster would be an immediate breaking point for Sánchez’s government, but noted the subject could harm the Socialists’ chances in regional elections in Aragón in the northeast of Spain in February, and in Castilla y León in the northwest in March. RAILWAY FEARS Trains are a major component of Spain’s logistical and economic infrastructure. Its high-speed network is the second-largest in the world after China, and carried some 40 million passengers over 2024, an increase of 22 percent compared with the previous year. In all, Spain’s rail network carried 549 million passengers in 2024. This month’s crash, near the town of Adamuz, was the country’s worst since 2013. A high-speed train derailed along a straight section of track and collided with an oncoming train. Investigators are focusing on a crack in the welding between an old section of track and a newer one as the potential cause of the derailment, although their probe continues. Crucially, the accident is being linked to broader fragility within the rail system, for which Sánchez’s government has to take some responsibility. Only two days after the Adamuz smash, a trainee driver died on a regional train in Catalonia after a wall collapsed onto the line near Barcelona. Several days of chaos ensued in the northeastern region as drivers demanded safety guarantees before returning to work and technical faults caused further disruption.  Safety precautions have led to temporary speed reductions on a number of high-speed routes across the country, including between Madrid and Barcelona after a crack in the track was discovered. “The challenge is not just to ensure reliable infrastructure, but also to restore Spaniards’ confidence” in the rail system, said El País national daily. POLITICAL IMPACT The sheer number of Sánchez’s allies that have been afflicted by scandals has sparked repeated speculation that his coalition, which no longer commands a stable parliamentary majority, might be about to collapse.  In November, the attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, was removed from office after being found guilty of leaking confidential information in a court case involving the boyfriend of a prominent right-wing politician. A number of Sánchez’s current and former allies are facing corruption probes, and some senior Socialists have been the target of sexual impropriety allegations. In November, the attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, was removed from office. | Fernando Sanchez/Europa Press via Getty Images Compounding all this, the rail crisis has now handed critics a different kind of ammunition against the government. “There is now a line of attack against the government which is not directly linked to either its alliances with [Catalan and Basque] pro-independence parties or corruption,” said Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Carlos III University. “It’s the idea that the government is not able to adequately manage public services under its remit.” The opposition zeroed in on that same weakness last year after an energy blackout hit the country for several hours in April. Much of the latest criticism has been aimed at Transport Minister Óscar Puente, who has been the government’s frontman on the Adamuz crash. A divisive figure, nicknamed “Sánchez’s Rottweiler,” he is a natural lightning rod for opposition ire. In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Puente insisted it hadn’t been caused by poor maintenance, obsolete infrastructure or a lack of investment. But the opposition is demanding his resignation, claiming he misled the public by suggesting that the whole line on which the accident occurred had been replaced recently, which was not the case. Government spokesperson Elma Saiz said Puente “has been where he has to be and is still there, giving explanations in search of the truth and always with empathy and accompanying the relatives of victims.” REGIONAL TENSIONS Meanwhile, the rail chaos in Catalonia has revived a longstanding grievance of nationalists there: that the Spanish state has chronically underinvested in their regional network. The Catalan Republican Left (ERC), a parliamentary ally of the government, has also called for Puente to step down. The tensions of recent days bear some similarity to the fallout from the flash floods that killed 237 people in eastern Spain in October 2024. The PP-led local government’s apparent mishandling of that tragedy, under the leadership of Carlos Mazón, then president of Valencia, is believed to have eroded support for the conservatives in the region and hurt them on the national level. Simón said it will only become apparent how damaging the railway problems are for Sánchez when more details of the Adamuz crash investigation emerge. He added he did not expect the prime minister to resign or call an election over it. But with an election looming on Feb. 8 in Aragón, before Castilla y León the following month, the rail system has been thrust onto the campaign trail. Simón said the crisis “could have a negative impact on an electoral level” for Sánchez’s Socialists. “Above all because it’s clear [the central government] is responsible, and over the last three years there have been frequent problems with trains in Spain, and that affects a lot of people,” he said.

BRUSSELS — Eurostar services between London and mainland Europe resumed on Wednesday after a major disruption in the Channel Tunnel left thousands of passengers stranded a day earlier. The high-speed rail operator had canceled most of its London-bound and outbound services on Tuesday after an overhead power supply fault inside the tunnel was compounded by a failed Le Shuttle train, which transports passengers and vehicles through the crossing. The incident blocked all routes through the tunnel, causing hours-long delays and widespread cancellations. Some trains in Europe that do not use the Channel crossing, such as the Paris-Brussels route, were also suspended due to the overall delays. A Eurostar spokesperson told POLITICO that services were to resume at 7 p.m. Brussels time (6 p.m. London time) on Tuesday evening, after a “partial reopening of the Channel Tunnel.” Getlink, the company that operates the Channel Tunnel, said work continued through the night to fix the power issue, allowing rail traffic in both directions to restart early Wednesday, BBC reported. Eurostar apologized to passengers for the disruption and warned of possible knock-on delays and last-minute cancellations on Wednesday as services return to normal. Travelers were urged to check their journeys before heading to stations. On Tuesday, Eurostar “strongly” advised passengers to postpone travel where possible and not to head to the train station if their train had been canceled.

International high-speed rail service Eurostar, which connects Brussels and London, canceled all services Tuesday because of technical problems in the Channel Tunnel. “Due to a problem with the overhead power supply and a subsequent failed Le Shuttle train the Channel Tunnel is currently closed. Unfortunately, this means we have no choice but to suspend all services today until further notice,” the company said in a service update on its website. Le Shuttle, the rail service that transports vehicles and passengers through the Channel Tunnel, is experiencing delays of up to three-and-a-half hours, according to an update on its website. Eurostar also urged passengers not to travel to stations, which include Brussels-Midi, Gare du Nord in Paris and St Pancras in London. British media reported there were traffic jams in front of the tunnel terminal in Folkestone, England and stations crowded with stranded passengers in London and Paris. Eurostar denied reports about stranded train passengers in the tunnel. “It is a broken shuttle (LeShuttle) that has now been moved out of the tunnel,” a spokesperson told POLITICO. The Channel Tunnel links Great Britain with mainland Europe. Under normal conditions, the journey from London St Pancras to Brussels-Midi takes about two hours.

LONDON — Since Labour swept into office last year, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has traveled the country enthusing over the government’s dream of a humming, futuristic net-zero economy. The good news, according to polling released Wednesday, is that his vision still has the backing of the public. The bad news is that support is slipping — and voters aren’t convinced Miliband is the guy to deliver it. For Miliband’s political opponents, this validates their wider attacks on him as an out-of-touch climate warrior, flogging a net-zero dream voters have rejected. At Reform’s party conference Friday, party chair David Bull referenced “mad Ed swivel-eyed Milliband.” Not to be outdone, the Conservatives have vowed to squeeze every molecule of oil and gas from beneath the North Sea, deadly heatwaves be damned. But it also shines a light on a confusing feature of British politics: a misalignment between the stories politicians want to tell about efforts to stop climate change, and stuff the public actually care about. At Reform’s party conference Friday, the party chair David Bull referenced “mad Ed swivel-eyed Milliband.” | Leon Neal/Getty Images The polling, conducted by progressive think tank More in Common and the Climate Outreach NGO, found the number of people who think reaching net-zero emissions will be good for the U.K. vastly outnumber those who think it will have a negative effect — 48 percent versus 16 percent. More people feel that the shift to clean energy has been fair than unfair. In Scotland, more are proud of the offshore wind industry (63 percent) than the oil and gas industry (54 percent). “Those who seek to divide communities with climate disinformation will not win because they do not represent the interests or values of the British people,” Miliband said in a statement shared with the media. Despite this, voters are hesitant about the personal impact of a country rushing to go green. Seventy-four percent of people think the U.K.’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 will eventually cost them money personally. The gap between those who think it will be beneficial for the U.K. versus harmful has shrunk by 20 points in only a year. This is frequently interpreted as a sign that a personal desire to help fix the climate is butting up against the hard realities of net zero, which requires changes like fitting millions of heat pumps and EV chargers and overhauling the energy grid. Further polling released by The Times Tuesday backs up the sense voters are growing more divided on climate change. It shows support for net zero collapsing among Reform and Conservative voters, while overall the issue has slipped from voters’ list of top concerns. But analysts from Climate Outreach said part of the problem isn’t the message but the messengers. “Politicians are not well trusted to speak about climate,” the NGO said in an analysis shared with POLITICO. In fact, elected leaders were the least trusted carriers of the climate message — beneath also-lowly ranked protesters and energy company executives. TRUST ISSUES Voter wariness about pro-climate messages isn’t a feature of green politics in particular, said Emma James, a researcher at Climate Outreach, but a symptom of broader public cynicism about government. “They don’t trust that politicians are there for people like them. Some audience segments feel that the system is rigged against them,” she said. It’s not net zero the public aren’t buying, it’s the ability of this government — or any government — to deliver it. Voters believe the NHS remains broken. National projects like high-speed rail lines and nuclear power stations keep being delayed at higher and higher costs. This creates a problem for Miliband. At a time of deep voter skepticism, his Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is pursuing precisely that kind of major national project — involving upfront costs, disruption and complex trade-offs, with the promise of huge savings to private and public purses down the line. It will, Miliband argues, generate new jobs. Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives went in search of their own set of climate salespeople. | Carl Court/Getty Images “We will win this fight by showing the visible benefits of the clean energy transition,” insisted one Labour official, granted anonymity to discuss the government’s internal deliberations. The story of failure, however, is pervasive and self-reinforcing, said Richard Johnson, a political scientist at Queen Mary University of London. “Policy delivery has to be tied in with a compelling political narrative and the political leadership that can tell that story and interpret what people are seeing in front of their eyes,” he said. “I wonder now if there is such a high level of cynicism … that even if you did tell a compelling narrative around policy delivery, that people would not believe it.” Johnson lays the blame with Miliband’s boss, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, “who has been in a way almost catastrophically unable to put together a compelling narrative for his government. Or, quite frankly, even his own leadership.” Downing Street says it is focused on driving economic growth across the country. This is not isolated to Labour. Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives went in search of their own set of climate salespeople — before deciding that there was more political capital in ditching pro-climate policies. Climate Outreach said Miliband could turn this problem into an “opportunity,” as long as he laid off the grand projet and focused on the visible, local benefits of climate policies. And there is some evidence that Labour gets it, seen in the government’s move to chip in for the energy bills of people living in sight of unpopular new electricity pylons. The more conservative or skeptical parts of the British electorate still had deep enthusiasm for messages about protecting the environment, the pollsters said. But most important, the NGO argued, was bringing other voices into the frame. While politicians are viewed very dimly indeed, experts and scientists are seen as credible messengers, the polling shows. So too are those seen to understand what life is like for normal British people. Farmers were among the messengers who cut through most with traditionalists and those described by the pollsters as “patriots.” Jeremy Clarkson, DESNZ needs you.

The EU needs to radically ramp up efforts to slash red tape and unify its single market if it wants to compete with China and the United States, France’s Europe minister told POLITICO. Benjamin Haddad applauded efforts by the European Commission to start streamlining rules in fields such as finance and sustainability as part of a so-called Omnibus Simplification Package, which was launched last month. But the European Union now needs to pick up the pace in revamping rules on corporate sustainability, due diligence, finance and defense, among other areas — taking much bolder steps than it has so far. “Now I think we need to accelerate. The Omnibus needs to become a TGV,” he said, referring to France’s Train à Grande Vitesse high-speed rail lines. “When the Commission wants to go fast, it can do so … There is a window to act now.” Asked whether the Omnibus package should be followed by further efforts to slash red tape he said: “Of course. We’ll need to address many other areas, including defense. It is almost one year since the European Parliament election. And now we are starting to talk about the first [simplification] bills. We have a window to act and we need to take it.” Haddad’s comments come in the wake of a joint push on Monday by the leaders of both France and Germany to abolish a law on ethical supply chains, amid a pro-business anti-green effort designed to bolster Europe’s competitiveness. The Europe minister said several EU countries, in addition to France and Germany, want to go beyond the Commission’s proposed streamlining and abolish the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. “In trilogue, at the Council, there will be many states that want to go further than the Commission’s proposals, notably on due diligence,” he said. Haddad also took aim at the EU’s 2040 climate targets and said Basel III — an international banking regulation designed to improve bank capital and liquidity — should be further delayed after the EU postponed implementing components of the regulation until the start of 2026. “I hear about other projects from the Commission, like creating new environmental benchmarks for 2040,” he said. “This is not the time to add complexity, but to see how we can make sure our companies are competitive on the international stage.” “At a basic level, we can’t allow decarbonization to reinforce Chinese and American industry. So let’s have a pause on further norms and let’s accompany our companies, protect them.” While hacking away at regulation, the EU also needs to overcome decades of inertia and start to unify its fragmented single market so EU companies can draw on deeper stores of capital and grow large enough to compete with American and Chinese rivals, Haddad said. He emphasized the need to push ahead with the formation of a so-called capital markets union — an idea that has failed to gain critical mass among EU countries despite years of advocacy by Paris and Berlin. “There will be proposals in coming months which go in this direction on the capital markets union, whether it’s on securitization or on a European savings account or a single supervisory authority,” he said. “Now is the time to go ahead with these things.” Another item on Haddad’s wish list: a common legal regimen for companies across the bloc. Currently, companies wishing to expand beyond their national borders need to grapple with 27 different legal systems — a problem that former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has vowed to solve by creating a 28th, European regime. “I’d go even further,” Haddad said. “I know the Commission is working on a 28th regime of corporate law. We’re not going to harmonize everything overnight. But let’s add a 28th regime for companies that can choose between a national or European regime if they want to develop on a European scale.”