A massive and unprecedented power blackout that swept across Spain on Monday has triggered fierce political backlash, with Santiago Abascal, leader of the populist Vox party, accusing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of “leading Spain into chaos.” Abascal is now demanding accountability for the hours-long outage that left millions without electricity.
The Vox leader lambasted the Sánchez government for “climate fanaticism” and failing to safeguard Spain’s energy infrastructure. “It’s not the first time this has happened, and it won’t be the last,” Abascal said. “They’ve dismantled power plants, made us dependent on renewables, and now we’re paying the price.”
Abascal also raised alarm about the government’s push toward digital payments, questioning what would have happened had Spain already eliminated cash or fully electrified its vehicle fleet. “Yesterday, cash was the only lifeline for many Spaniards,” he said.
The Vox leader also took aim at corruption allegations surrounding members of Sánchez’s government, rhetorically asking, “Who is getting rich from this chaos?” He urged the center-right Popular Party (PP) to sever any cooperation with the ruling Socialist government and join his party’s call for a complete reversal of Sánchez’s policies.
The blackout crisis began at 12:33 p.m., when the Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica de España (REE) reported a catastrophic cascade failure. Initial reports suggest the blackout was triggered by a sudden loss of photovoltaic generation in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, which was followed in rapid succession by grid destabilizations, disconnections from the France-Spain interconnection, and a massive collapse of renewable energy input.
At its worst, generation in the Iberian Peninsula dropped to zero.
REE’s director of operations, Eduardo Prieto, dismissed the possibility of a cyberattack or human error and said that no extreme weather event had occurred at the time. He confirmed that the root cause was still under investigation but likely stemmed from a technical failure in renewable generation systems.
The blackout claimed at least five lives. In Ourense, three family members died from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by improper generator use. In Madrid, a woman perished in a fire, and in Valencia, another woman, dependent on an oxygen machine, also died.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced two independent investigations into the blackout: one led by Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition, and the other to be led by the European Commission in Brussels.
Unlike REE, Sánchez did not rule out any potential causes.
