By David Latona
MADRID (Reuters) -A lawmaker in the leadership of Spain’s opposition People’s Party (PP) resigned on Wednesday after admitting to having provided “incorrect information” about her university qualifications.
Noelia Nunez, 33, was appointed by PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo as the party’s national vice secretary in 2023. She was a rising star in Madrid politics, partly due to her appeal as a young and social media-savvy conservative.
However, Nunez became the centre of controversy this week after local media reported inconsistencies between her publicly stated qualifications and official records.
In her CV on the lower house’s transparency portal, Nunez listed a dual degree in law and public administration legal sciences. She had also variously claimed to hold an English degree from distance-learning university UNED and a law degree from the University of Central Missouri.
Following media scrutiny and viral threads on X by Transport Minister Oscar Puente casting suspicion on her credentials, Nunez admitted on Tuesday she had yet to complete any degree but wanted to resume her studies and “never had the intention to fool anyone”.
After meeting with Feijoo on Wednesday, she decided to step down from party leadership and both her posts as national lawmaker and local councillor in Fuenlabrada, a Madrid suburb.
“I apologise to all who feel disappointed, but I also believe that apologising isn’t enough,” she wrote in an open letter. “I’ll feel at ease if I contribute to restoring confidence in politics.”
The scandal comes as Spain’s two main parties each face a slew of corruption accusations and judicial inquiries.
Top members of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s inner circle are alleged to have led a kickbacks scheme linked to public contracts at the transport ministry, with his erstwhile right-hand man held in pre-trial detention.
Meanwhile, a judge is probing whether a law firm founded by former PP Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro charged companies large sums to obtain tailor-made legal reforms during his tenure. Over 150 elected PP officials are implicated in 28 pending corruption trials, most of which are scheduled to kick off after the summer.
(Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
