Those who have studied the CVs of members of the Spanish Congress of Deputies in depth say that, suddenly, a number of the honourable members' qualifications have disappeared. By the look of things, the scandal around the president of the Community of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes's, master's wasn't a single black sheep academically speaking in the ranks of the Partido Popular. It was foreseeable: a political party used to lying, and we've seen that in Catalonia to the highest degree, doesn't do so on a single topic. It ends up becoming a modus vivendi.
I have to admit that when I read about the latest case, that of Pablo Casado's postgraduate from Harvard, I thought it was a joke from a satirical magazine like El Jueves and not a true news story. Was it was possible that young Pablo Casado, media-friendly Pablo Casado, talkative Pablo Casado, the one who had dared one day to suggest that president Puigdemont could end up like Lluís Companys and commented another day that the speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, has two daughters and knows what awaits him if allows Puigdemont's investiture as president... might have also embroidered his CV? Well, yes! You'd say that insulting people, intimidating them with measures it corresponds to judges, and not politicians, to adopt, is all they know how to do. Because university degrees and academic records are falling off from the edges.
It seems that at least two of his four postgraduate qualifications, of which, according to him, one was from Harvard and another from Georgetown, the first appearing on his CV as a "DGP from the Kennedy School of Government" at Harvard University, were taught in Madrid, in the Aravaca neighbourhood. And, in reality, it was a program lasting four days, which only involved paying the 2,000€ enrollment fee (£1,700, $2,500) and attending the classes. A quantity about which he says he doesn't remember whether he paid it from his own pocket -although the amount seems one you would remember- or whether it came under his expenses at the Madrid Assembly, where he was a deputy. The University of Georgetown one is something similar. Beyond the explanations he's given, anyone who has such a course would be more careful about calling it a postgraduate.
But OK, it seems that the PP has different criteria. Basing yourselves on lies and exaggeration is like that. You end up believing them even though they have nothing to do with the truth.