Madrid regional president finally quits after suspected shoplifting video emerges
The president of the Madrid regional government, Cristina Cifuentes, has finally resigned. She has been facing calls to quit after it emerged she faked her Master Degree. In a statement today (Wednesday 25th April) she announced her decision to spare her colleagues and family any further embarrassment.
Yet, this decision was not in regards to the fake degree scandal of recent weeks, no this was after CCTV footage was leaked of her stealing face cream seven years ago. OKdiario published a leaked video which seems to show Cifuentes emptying her bag in front of a security officer in a Supermarket office, revealing two jars of Olay face cream worth around €40.
Cifuentes made a great play of the personal campaign against her which was inappropriate for the political arena, which does not garner very much sympathy with the people of Spain. If she had resigned when she was discovered to have fraudulently claimed a post graduate degree then she would not have come under such intense scrutiny. Rumours abound that the leak was from Cifuentes’ own party to force her resignation and maintain a grip on control of the Madrid region although OKdiario strenuously deny such a claim.
Prime Minister Rajoy was quoted as saying that she had done what she needed to do. “I think the situation made her resignation inevitable.”
The decision now means the Partido Popular can put a new candidate up for the impending vote of no confidence in the regional assembly.
In a country not unaccustomed to political corruption and scandal, this was possibly the most surreal chapter Spain had seen in some time, it seems only fitting that she was eventually dragged from office by something as petty and inconsequential as face cream.
