Spanish ministry spent €70,000 to find who nicknamed minister Puente on X

According to La Gaceta, Spain's Transport Ministry, headed by Óscar Puente, spent nearly 70,000 euros to identify those who gave him nicknames on X. The figure turns a social media spat into a concrete public expense.

The story is by **Unai Cano** for **La Gaceta**, and the headline needs no adjectives: nearly **70,000 euros** from the Transport Ministry to find out who was giving its head, **Óscar Puente**, nicknames on X. The matter matters for two reasons. The first is money: 70,000 euros is no small change for a department that manages roads, ports and railways. The second is the method: using public resources to track anonymous accounts that mock a minister raises an uncomfortable question about where the legitimate defense of honor ends and the use of office to silence criticism begins.

## What is known about the spending

The figure reported by **La Gaceta** is an amount and a recipient: nearly **70,000 euros** from the Transport Ministry. It is not a social media estimate or a user's calculation: it is a figure attributed to a media outlet, with a named author and an identified ministerial portfolio. The purpose of the spending, according to that report, was to find out who was giving the minister nicknames on X. The story does not detail the breakdown of the contract or the administrative procedure, so any conclusion about its legality requires waiting for the documents.

## Why a nickname ends up costing public money

Nicknames on social media are old acquaintances of Spanish politics. What is new is not the mockery, it is the institutional response. Tracking pseudonymous accounts requires lawyers, reports and, sometimes, expert assessments: that is where the money goes. The underlying question is whether a ministry should fund the pursuit of jokes with public budget. The law protects honor, yes, but also political criticism, and the line between the two is not drawn by a tweet.

## The precedent worth remembering

In Spain, the State's legal services have acted against private individuals for social media comments before, with mixed results in the courts. Each case is resolved separately and none creates automatic precedent. What is relevant here is the cost: **70,000 euros** to identify authors of nicknames is a figure any opposition will turn into a political weapon. And rightly so: public money is justified by results, not by sensitivities.

That a minister wants to defend himself is legitimate. That he does so with nearly **70,000 euros** of everyone's money is another matter. Caution: the figure comes from a journalistic report and should be checked against the ministry's version before considering it settled.