The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has accepted to put his doctoral thesis online from this Friday, as Podemos and Ciudadanos had asked him to do. By doing so, he avoids the urgent appearance in the Congress called for by PP and Ciudadanos.
Para facilitar aún más el acceso a mi tesis, se abrirá en su totalidad a lo largo del día de mañana. Os dejo aquí una reflexión sobre lo que significó para mí y sobre todo lo especulado estos días al respecto: https://t.co/ZdqLiEf97r
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) 13 de setembre de 2018
His thesis will be posted on the Spanish education ministry's TESEO database of theses. Previously, it could only be consulted in person at Camilo José Cela University in Madrid. The prime minister took the decision to show he has nothing to hide.
Sánchez's health minister, Carmen Montón, resigned earlier this week after irregularities were reported in a master's she had obtained from Rey Juan Carlos University, including accusations that parts of her thesis were plagiarised from other sources. The leader of the main opposition party, Pablo Casado, has also faced questions about a master's he earned from the same institution, within months of his party's president of the autonomous community of Madrid resigning facing multiple scandals, including one over her own master's.
This Thursday, the Moncloa government palace issued a saying it is "categorically false" that the prime minister's doctoral thesis was plagiarised. They threatened legal actions "in defence of the honour and dignity" of the prime minister if the reports weren't corrected.
For their part, PP has decided to join Ciudadanos' petition that the prime minister should appear before the Spanish Congress to answer questions about his thesis.
However, the party's secretary general, Teodoro García, said this morning that, for the moment, they were asking for clarifications about his thesis through the media, as Casado did over his master's. As such, they don't believe it necessary yet for him to appear before the lower chamber. This comes after Ciudadanos' leader Albert Rivera demanded full transparency from Sánchez over his doctoral thesis and for him to appear in the Congress.
In the end the prime minister has taken the decision to put his thesis online. The university could not do so without his authorisation in accordance with intellectual property law. Camilo José Cela University had extended its library's opening hours after this Wednesday at least 20 journalists arrived to consult the work.
Sánchez accused PP and Ciudadanos of having joined forces against him in a "discrediting campaign" because they don't accept having lost the motion of no-confidence in Mariano Rajoy that made him prime minister nor that they lack proposals supported by a majority of society. Sánchez made the accusations in a Facebook post in which he also expresses pride in his thesis.