Senior Spanish politician’s career in jeopardy amid claims her university degree is fake

One of the most senior members of Spain’s ruling conservative party is facing calls to quit after accusations emerged that she had faked a masters degree in law.

Cristina Cifuentes, the president of the party’s Madrid branch and tipped as a possible successor to prime minister Mariano Rajoy, has been a member of the Popular Party (PP) for nearly 30 years but has been forced to cancel a number of public appearances since the scandal emerged.

The 53-year-old is accused of manipulating grades and falsifying signatures on records of a postgraduate qualification she completed in 2012. The state prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation into the reports, with the criminal offence of falsifying public documents carrying a prison sentence of up to six years in Spanish law.

The furore dominated the party’s annual convention at the weekend in Seville, according to El Pais, yet Mr Rajoy did not defend or even mention Ms Cifuentes during his keynote speech on Sunday. The prime minister focused on tackling Catalonia’s independence and motivating the party to deal with the opposition, especially with Ciudadanos, its biggest rival.

On Monday, almost 500 people protested outside the King Juan Carlos University, where Ms Cifuentes received the allegedly fraudulent degree. Students, parents and teachers have expressed their outrage, demanding a fair and “decent” system.

The scandal began on 21 March, when a whistleblower contacted the university’s management saying Ms Cifuentes’ record had been manipulated. Two years after she graduated, someone changed two of her grades from “absent” to Bs, it was claimed.

The university’s faculty of law launched an investigation, and it has since been claimed that two out of the three signatures that validated Ms Cifuentes’ dissertation were forged.

Javier Ramos, the university’s vice-chancellor, announced on Friday that he could not certify the degree’s authenticity. He claimed there were no official records that proved Ms Cifuentes successfully handed in and presented her dissertation in 2012.

Ms Cifuentes has admitted she did not attend any lectures or take exams at the university, but says she did complete coursework and her dissertation. She strongly denies the forgery allegations, saying she completed the degree and that her professors support her. ”I do not intend to resign,” she said. “I confirm that in everything I have told the truth.” When asked to produce a copy of her completed dissertation, she is reported to have said she lost it while moving house.

Opposition parties, including Ciudadanos, called for Ms Cifuentes’ resignation on Monday. The same day, she was scheduled to deliver a conference at a university in Madrid, but the event was cancelled and any trace of it disappeared from her website. Since the scandal first emerged, Ms Cifuentes has cancelled various events and limited her public exposure.