Midsummer is usually a period when Spain’s politicians flee Madrid’s scorching heat in order to relax on one of the country’s many beaches. But this year many are postponing their coastal exodus to huddle in their offices and conduct frantic reviews of their CVs.
The mass revision of résumés has been prompted by the abrupt resignations of at least three politicians revealed to have lied about their academic credentials.
The first to be exposed was Noelia Núñez, deputy secretary of the center-right People’s Party (PP). The up-and-coming lawmaker was seen as one of the most promising figures in Spain’s leading opposition party because of her popularity among young conservatives on TikTok.
But in July it was revealed that although her profile in the Spanish parliament’s website said she held a “dual degree in Law and Public Administration,” she held no degree whatsoever. Journalists also discovered that her profile at Guatemala’s Francisco Marroquín University, where N´úñez taught a Political Science course, falsely claimed that she also held a degree in English Philology.
News of the politician’s fake CV credentials came at an awkward moment for the PP. Since last May, when Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was forced to publicly apologize for the corruption within his Socialist Party, the leading center-right political force has pitched itself as a “clean” group that Spaniards can trust.
After meeting with opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Núñez announced her resignation. Shortly thereafter, her party ordered its officials to review their CVs to make sure no other falsehoods would be uncovered.
Dummy degrees
But less than a week later, another set of fake credentials was uncovered. This time, however, they belonged to Socialist Party official José María Ángel Batalla, whom the national government had tasked with overseeing reconstruction efforts following last year’s deadly floods in Valencia.
Batalla claimed to hold a degree in Archival Science and Library Science from the University of Valencia issued in 1983 — a remarkable feat given the university in question did not teach that subject until 1990.
The discovery of the falsehood has not only prompted the official’s resignation, but it could potentially land him in serious legal trouble. Because Batalla used the fake degree to successfully apply to join Spain’s public service in the early 1980s, he could be prosecuted for defrauding the state for more than 40 years.
The latest official to step down is Ignacio Herrero, who until Friday held the key forest and land management portfolio in Extremadura’s regional government, and who was a member of the far-right Vox party until last summer.
Like Batalla, Herrero claimed to have obtained a degree in Marketing from the CEU University decades before students were able to acquire that title at that institution.
Classist criteria?
Spanish politicians are not required to hold university degrees in order to sit in the country’s parliament, but officials are exposed to social pressure to boast academic titles that underscore their suitability for public office.
That tendency both responds to the aspirational views of older citizens who were unable to pursue higher education — just 22.5 percent of Spaniards held degrees in the year 2000 — and reflects younger generations’ view that university studies are a given. The boom in the number of universities in Spain over the past 20 years has eased access to such an extent that today nearly half of Spaniards aged 25 to 34 have higher education degrees.
In the past, several politicians have gotten into trouble while attempting to bolster their credentials. Former PP leader Pablo Casado faced public ridicule for claiming to hold a postgraduate degree from Harvard which later turned out to be a diploma for attending a three-day course offered by the prestigious U.S. university in Madrid.
Meanwhile, former socialist Health Minister Carmen Montón stepped down from her post after it was revealed that she had plagiarized her master’s thesis. And the Madrid region’s former center-right president, Cristina Cifuentes, was ensnared in a scandal over the alleged manipulation of her records at the capital’s Rey Juan Carlos University.
In response to questions about the recent resignations, Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz said the fake CVs reflected a problematic “class-based debate” when it comes to university degrees in Spain.
Despite holding a “technical” portfolio as Spain’s labor minister, Díaz insisted that “politics isn’t a technical matter,” and should also be open to citizens whose socioeconomic or personal circumstances impeded them from acquiring higher education degrees.
“Anyone can be a politician,” Díaz said on Telecinco, adding that she knew plenty of officials who hold no academic titles and are great at their jobs because they take the time to master the areas they oversee and work hard to accomplish the tasks at hand.
“We can’t demand all of our politicians hold degrees,” she said. “I say that as someone who has known many ministers with tons of degrees who are terrible when it comes to public administration.”
Spain’s summer of CV-related resignations
Source: Viral Showbiz Pinay
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