The fall-out over fake CVs that has rocked Spanish politics has reached the Canaries, with the region’s vice-president under intense scrutiny over dubious statements.
Revelations that one of the top figures in the opposition Popular Party at national level, MP Noelia Núñez, had doctored her CV to include qualifications she did not hold sent officials from all the main parties scurrying to check the contents of the CVs of high-profile figures throughout the country.
Eagle-eyed journalists spotted that the academic biography of Manuel Domínguez, leader of the Popular Party in the Canaries and the islands’ vice-president, appeared to have been amended overnight to remove a reference to a Master’s degree he was credited as holding prior to the scandal that engulfed Núñez last week and triggered her immediate resignation from all her political roles.
Further digging by the Canarian media, particularly the Atlántico Hoy newspaper, over the weekend now sees question marks placed against qualifications listed by the vice-president on the PP website, including one from a private university which is not accredited to issue awards in Spain.
Particular media interest centres on a supposed degree in Business Administration awarded by the European School of Management and endorsed by an American institution called Preston University, based in Cheyenne (Wyoming).
According to media, lecturers on the courses delivered by the pseudo-university in Tenerife include the current mayor of Güímar, Gustavo Pérez, whose CV on the town’s official website still describes him as “Professor of business administration with Preston University” even though no higher education degrees are listed among his qualifications.
The fake CV scandal affecting the main opposition party has been seized on to the full by the Spanish government to divert attention from its own problems, not least the many corruption allegations involving senior figures close to prime minister Pedro Sánchez.
