| Honorific Prefix: | The Most Excellent |
| Óscar Puente | |
| Birth Name: | Óscar Puente Santiago |
| Office: | Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility |
| Term Start: | 21 November 2023 |
| Primeminister: | Pedro Sánchez |
| Predecessor: | Raquel Sánchez Jiménez |
| Office2: | Mayor of Valladolid |
| Term Start2: | 13 June 2015 |
| Term End2: | 17 June 2023 |
| Predecessor2: | Francisco Javier León de la Riva |
| Successor2: | Jesús Julio Carnero |
| Office3: | Member of the Congress of Deputies |
| Term Start3: | 17 August 2023 |
| Constituency3: | Valladolid |
| Office4: | Spokesman of the Federal Executive of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party |
| Term Start4: | 18 June 2017 |
| Term End4: | 17 October 2021 |
| Predecessor4: | Mario Jiménez Díaz |
| Successor4: | Felipe Sicilia |
| Office5: | President of the Socialist Group in the City Council of Valladolid |
| Term Start5: | 11 July 2008 |
| Term End5: | 13 June 2015 |
| Predecessor5: | Soraya Rodríguez |
| Successor5: | Pedro Herrero |
| Office6: | Councillor in the City Council of Valladolid |
| Term Start6: | 16 June 2007 |
| Term End6: | 20 November 2023 |
| Birth Date: | 1968 11, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain |
| Party: | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party |
| Alma Mater: | University of Valladolid |
| Spouse: | Laura Soria Velasco |
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | Politician, lawyer |
Óscar Puente Santiago (pronounced as /es/; born 15 November 1968) is a Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) politician who has served as Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility since 2023. He served as a city councillor in Valladolid from 2007 to 2023 and as the city's mayor from 2015 to 2023.
Born in Valladolid, Puente was the son and grandson of socialists. He achieved a master's degree in Political Management in 1992 and a Law degree from the University of Valladolid a year later. After two years of internship, he began practicing law in 1995.[1]
Active in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 1990, he began working for the party as a General Vice Secretary in the provincial executive in 2004, having secretary-general four years earlier. Elected to Valladolid City Council in 2007, he replaced Soraya Rodríguez as party spokesperson in the city hall the following year, and in 2009 became secretary general of the PSOE in the city.[1]
In September 2010, Puente was endorsed by the PSOE at local and provincial level to be their mayoral candidate in Valladolid in the 2011 Spanish local elections.[2] In the elections in May, People's Party (PP) incumbent Francisco Javier León de la Riva took a majority and rose from 15 seats to 17, while the PSOE fell from 13 to 9.[3]
In the 2015 local elections, the PSOE had eight seats, and with the support of the seven seats held by local left-wing parties, they gained the majority to make him mayor and end the 20-year tenure of León de la Riva.[4]
In a municipal session in June 2018, Puente questioned the management skills of Citizens spokesperson Pilar Vicente by pointing out that she used to be a store assistant at the VallSur shopping centre. Albert Rivera, the national leader of Citizens, considered this to be a classist and male chauvinist insult and called for Puente to resign.[5] Puente said that he was referring to what he believed to be falsehoods in Vicente's curriculum vitae, and that Rivera had exaggerated the episode.[6]
In the 2023 local elections, Puente's party took 11 of 27 seats, the same as the PP of Jesús Julio Carnero, though the PSOE received marginally more votes. Carnero was able to form a majority government with the three councillors of Vox, becoming mayor.[7]
He is married to judge Laura Soria Velasco and has two daughters. His daughter Carmen took part on the sixth season of La Voz Kids in 2021, reaching the semi-finals.[8] [9]