The first case that caused a wave of resignation was the case of the 33-year-old MP of the Opposition People's Party (PP) Noeli Nunez. A politician who identified as a graduate of law and administration was caught on providing false information. After revealing the fraud, Nunez renounced all its positions in the party.
Then Jose Maria Angel Batall, a representative of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), came to the public. The battle served as the flood -affected area responsible for rebuilding the areas in the Valencia region, but his biography turned out to be inaccurate. He claimed that in the 1980s he graduated from the University of Valencia, which was actually opened there only later.
The case of the third politician, Ignacio Herrery from the Vox party, also shook public opinion. A former member of a radical right -wing political formation managed forests and land in Estremadure, an autonomous community in western Spain. Herrera in his CV placed information that he has a marketing diploma obtained at the University of CEU in the period when this field did not exist in the university's offer.
Experts and media pay attention to the growing problem of falsifying professional qualifications in Spain, not only among politicians. “Spanish politicians do not have to have a higher education to sit in the national parliament, but officials are exposed to social pressure to show off academic diplomas, which emphasize their suitability for performing public functions,” noted Politico.
The dishonesty of politicians in education documents has been the subject of turbulent debates in Spain for years. In 2018, Carmen Monton, the then Minister of Health in the Pedro Sanchez government, resigned after disclosure of plagiarism in her master's thesis. The allegations of irregularities in the doctoral dissertation also forced the Prime Minister Sanchez himself to publish his dissertation to dispel doubts.
“Liance about a diploma, a course or language that you have not mastered, not only has legal or employment related consequences. It also harms reputation and his own professional development,” said Julio Garcia from the Casa Verde Foundation in an interview with RTVE, Spanish public broadcaster, in the latest material dedicated to this subject.
False of educational achievements is becoming more and more common, which indicates the need for reforms and greater transparency in the document verification process, experts emphasize.
