Is Pablo Casado’s Masters degree a ‘gift’ and not earned?
Spain’s Popular Party, aka Partido Popular or PP, has been mired in corruption allegations for years. So much so, at this point, it looks very much like the Popular Party is filled with some of the most corrupt people in Spain.
This week, things certainly did not get any better for the PP. Not when it was alleged the PP’s new leader, Pablo Casado, did not actually go to university and earn his Masters degree in law.
Instead, it seems very likely he was ‘gifted’ the degree because of his political connections. If so, he could be guilty of “bribery and misfeasance”.
Interestingly, Casado has only been leader of the PP for less than three weeks, yet he is already being accused of being corrupt after a Madrid court announced his Masters degree from Madrid’s King Juan Carlos University was not earned.
Instead, Casado was said to be part of a handful of students that were picked by the university for things other than their academic work and, thus, did not have to do the same work as other pupils in order to graduate with a law degree.
The judge in the Madrid court, however, could not take the case any further as Spain’s immunity laws currently protect Casado from the lower courts due to his being an elected official.
That has not stopped the judge pursuing the case, though. Instead, it was sent up to Spain’s Supreme Court to be considered for trial. It is now up to the judges on that court to decide if they should proceed with Casado’s case or drop it.
It is also not just Pablo Casado who is under investigation for his receipt of a Masters degree he did not earn. Other public officials are also having the way they obtained their supposed degrees examined.
It is not looking good for Pablo Casado in particular, however, as Casado has already admitted he did not go to classes or take the exams other students that were awarded Masters degrees in law had to take.
Another member of the PP, Cristina Cifuentes, has already resigned after she was found to have received her ‘degree’ from the same university without doing the work necessary, and was also discovered to have shoplifted €40 worth of make-up.
As for Pablo Casado, most of his coursework was also waived by the university, with the writing of four papers being substituted instead. As there does not seem to be any evidence at this time that Casado wrote the papers either, it could go very badly for him indeed.
According to El Pais, the judge that first looked at Casado’s case, Carmen Rodríguez-Medel, says there are several things that need to happen to ensure this case is investigated correctly.
They include Casado giving the court every document related to his degree, and submitting the four papers he supposedly wrote so the court can look into them further. After all, if he did write the papers, shouldn’t they be of a caliber high enough to warrant a degree?
The judge also says the laptop he wrote the papers on should also be submitted into evidence.