MADRID, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Cristina Cifuentes on Wednesday resigned as the president of Spain's Autonomous Community of Madrid in the face of increasing pressure to step down following her involvement in two scandals.

On Wednesday, a video of her being caught shoplifting was published by online newspaper OKdiario.

This video, taken by a security camera in a supermarket in the south of Madrid in 2011, showed Cifuentes and a security guard after she had been caught stealing two jars of moisturizing cream thought to be worth around 40 euros (48.7 U.S. dollars).

Shortly after this revelation, Cifuentes resigned in a press conference, in which she said she had "taken the creams by mistake, involuntarily and without knowing."

Cifuentes, member of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's People's Party, had been facing calls for her resignation after it was revealed by online newspaper Eldiario.es in March that she had obtained a masters degree from the King Juan Carlos University in Madrid with irregularities.

Cifuentes received her degree despite registering for the course four months after it had started, failed to attend class (in a course where an 80 percent attendance record was necessary to pass), and didn't sit exams or present her end-of-course project.

She responded to the accusations by presenting a document which she said proved the legitimacy of her degree, although it later transpired that the signatures on the paper she showed as proof were false.

Commenting on her resigation, Rajoy said Cifuentes "did what she had to do."

The affair is another blow for a party which is struggling in the opinion polls due to a string of corruption scandals.

Cifuentes' predecessor at the Madrid regional authority, Ignacio Gonzalez, was arrested on corruption charges in April 2017 and spent six months on remand, while Francisco Granados, number two to Gonzalez's predecessor Esperanza Aguirre, was arrested at the same time and also faces corruption charges.

Cifuentes' former deputy Angel Garrido is expected to replace her as president of the Autonomous Community of Madrid until regional elections are held in 2019. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)