MADRID'S regional president Cristina Cifuentes has resigned after CCTV footage of her about to leave a shop with unpaid-for face creams was leaked.
Cristina, who is on the right-wing PP party but is considered one of its most left-leaning high-ranking politicians, has also come under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons in connection with her master's degree in regional law from the Rey Juan Carlos University.
She had refused to stand down over the master's issues, but the video of her moment of absent-mindedness means she is now feeling the pressure.
“I've been under investigation for years, and yet this video shows a situation of involuntary error,” Cifuentes complained.
“By mistake, and without being conscious of the fact, I walked out of a supermarket with €40 worth of products.
“They told me at the exit and I paid for them there and then; the issue never went any further.”
She has admitted to 'past mistakes', but stressed that she has been 'under judgment her entire life' and that this is not the first time she has suffered 'blackmail' with the supermarket footage.
“It's crossed some evident red lines and has been used for far more than politics – it is part of a campaign that is no longer political, but has become personal,” Cristina says.
The video, from 2011, has been leaked 'as a consequence of her zero-tolerance approach' to corruption, which she argued when appearing in Parliament to explain the problems surrounding her master's degree.
She has now opted to resign in line with president Mariano Rajoy's request – but only from her role as regional president.
Cristina has no plans to give up her seat in Parliament or leave the PP party, but has agreed to let another candidate take her place at the helm in Madrid 'to prevent the risk of the radical left' governing instead.
This said, mayoress of Madrid Manuela Carmena is a member of left-wing Podemos, which Cifuentes may be referring to, and yet the two women have always had a good working relationship and have even been seen together socially.
It is not clear whether the issue with Cristina's master's degree is due to her being given preferential treatment because of her political status, whether underhand dealings went on, whether the university is at fault, or whether Cristina did, indeed, meet all the requirements for her qualification.
An anonymous Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC) student leaked papers which suggested Cristina had attended very few lectures and threw into doubt whether she had presented the compulsory dissertation.
She appeared in Parliament to show her grade transcript and URJC staff said these not having been recorded was an admin error.
Sra Cifuentes was criticised for not producing her dissertation amid claims it did not exist, but she insisted she could not find it as she gained her master's years ago.
One tutor stressed he had personally marked one of her exam papers, but further cases came to light hinting that some students had been passed in modules that they had not taken or not made the grade in.
