Spain's Health Minister Carmen Monton leaves after announcing her resignation at the ministry in Madrid, Spain, September 11, 2018. REUTERS/Juan Medina

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Health Minister Carmen Monton resigned on Tuesday after reports of irregularities in how she obtained an academic degree, becoming the second minister to quit since Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took office in June.

Spanish news website eldiario.es reported on Monday that Monton had been awarded grades without attending classes or having contact with professors when she obtained her master’s degree at Madrid’s Rey Juan Carlos university.

Broadcaster La Sexta said on Tuesday it had tracked down her final project and found it contained plagiarized passages.

Monton denied those reports but said she was stepping down anyway, to avoid the situation affecting the government.

Sanchez took power after toppling his predecessor with a confidence vote over a long-running corruption scandal.

Anti-austerity group Podemos said Monton had no option but to resign if she could not explain the situation.

Monton’s departure follows that of Maxim Huerta, who resigned as culture minister in June just a week after taking office, over a tax fine related to his income 10 years ago.

Rey Juan Carlos university has been connected with other recent scandals involving accusations that politicians held improperly obtained qualifications.

The previous head of the Madrid regional government and the head of the opposition People’s Party received academic titles there which attracted accusations of malpractice, which both denied.</s>MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Health Minister Carmen Monton resigned from her position on Tuesday after reports of irregularities in how she obtained an academic degree, becoming the second minister to quit since Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took office in June.

Monton denied reports that there were irregularities in a master’s degree she received from a university in Madrid.</s>Madrid, Sep 12 (IANS) Spanish Minister for Health, Social Services and Equality Carmen Monton on Tuesday resigned after allegations of plagiarism, media reports said.

According to the media reports, Monton had copied 19 of the 52 pages of the investigative work she produced as part of the Masters Degree she obtained from the Department of Law at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid) between 2010 and 2011.

These revelations followed a series of articles published in the online newspaper “Diario.es” revealing further irregularities in her Master including having her marks for part of the course changes from “not present” to “pass”, Xinhua reported.

Monton’s resignation came just hours after Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had publicly given her his backing, saying she was “doing a fine job and she is going to continue doing so”.

Monton is not the first politician to be forced to resign over allegations of irregularities of the qualifications they obtained from the University Rey Juan Carlos.

Cristina Cifuentes, of the right wing People’s Party (PP), was forced to resign as the President of the Madrid Autonomous Community in April this year after similar allegations.

Pablo Casado, who was recently elected leader of the PP, also faces accusations of irregularities in the Masters Degree which he also obtained from the same university.</s>MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Health Minister Carmen Monton resigned from her position on Tuesday after reports of irregularities in how she obtained an academic degree, becoming the second minister to quit since Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took office in June.

Monton denied reports that there were irregularities in a master's degree she received from a university in Madrid.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.</s>Spain’s health minister, Carmen Montón, has resigned after becoming the latest senior politician to find her educational qualifications under scrutiny.

Montón stepped down on Tuesday night following a series of reports detailing irregularities in her master’s degree in interdisciplinary gender studies, which was awarded by King Juan Carlos University in Madrid seven years ago.

She insisted she had been “transparent and honest”, but an investigation by the online newspaper El Diario found discrepancies over her attendance and the marks awarded. Moreover, it emerged on Tuesday that Montón had plagiarised passages from Wikipedia and other websites in her final degree work.

The MP claimed she had done nothing wrong and, in an apparent reference to the opposition People’s party (PP) politicians who have faced questions over their degrees, said: “We’re not all the same.”

She paid tribute to Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist prime minister who appointed her after being sworn in three months ago, as she left office.

“Spanish men and women have a fantastic prime minister and I’ve informed him of my resignation so that this situation doesn’t get in the way,” Montón said.

Earlier that day, Sánchez had given the minister his backing. “She’s doing a great job and will carry on doing so,” he said.

The prime minister later tweeted his thanks: “In your 100 days at the helm of the health ministry, you have restored universal healthcare in our country and you’ve worked tirelessly to return and increase rights. Thanks, Carmen Montón, for your commitment to equality and social justice. Your brave decision does you credit.”

Montón is the second minister Sánchez has lost since he used a vote of no confidence to unseat his PP predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, amid public anger over the party’s corruption and cronyism.

In June, the culture minister, Màxim Huerta, resigned following media reports that he had avoided paying taxes while working as a TV journalist 10 years ago.

Pablo Casado, the new PP leader, has also faced questions over his academic record. Earlier this year, it emerged the postgraduate degree he claims to hold from Harvard had in fact been earned by attending a four-day course in Madrid. He has also admitted he was awarded a master’s degree in public regional law by King Juan Carlos University despite not being required to attend classes or take exams.

Spain’s supreme court is looking into Casado’s degree and will decide whether the investigations should continue. However, PP sources maintain that Casado’s case is very different from that of Montón, arguing their leader has not been accused of plagiarism or falsification.

In April, Cristina Cifuentes, the PP head of Madrid’s regional government, resigned after video footage emerged of her apparently being caught stealing two tubs of face cream seven years ago. Cifuentes had also been under pressure to quit over allegations of irregularities in her master’s degree from King Juan Carlos University.</s>MADRID — Spain’s health minister has resigned over irregularities found in her master’s degree, the second cabinet member to be replaced in the just over 100 days since Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez came to power.

Carmen Monton announced her resignation late on Tuesday, a day after news website elDiario.es published irregularities in her 2011 degree on gender studies. Her final work, it later emerged, had chunks of text copied from websites and other works.

Sanchez, who became prime minister in June promising to root out corruption, lost a culture minister over a tax fine. His centre-left government has been marred by erratic policy-making, with several U-turns on cabinet decisions.

The resignation also puts pressure on opposition leader Pablo Casado, whose degree from the same public policy institute as Monton’s is under investigation.</s>Spain's minister for health, consumption and social welfare on Monday held a press conference to publicly refute allegations that she had received a favored treatment during her graduate studies at a university steeped in scandal due to her position as a member of Parliament at the time.

Carmen Montón said that the Master's Degree in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies she earned in 2010-11 at the King Juan Carlos University (URJC) – an institution mired in disrepute following two high-profile cases of politicians effortlessly receiving degrees in an extremely irregular fashion – had followed the proper procedures.
The Spanish Health Minister Carmen Montón resigns after the irregularities in her master's degree and the plagiarism of part of her final project were made public on 10 September. She is the second minister to resign since Sánchez formed the government on 7 June.