Uruguay’s Minister of the Environment, Adrián Peña, has resigned from his post following a controversy after he confirmed that he had not completed a university degree, despite having stated otherwise.
«I was wrong, I assumed the mistake and today I pay for it with the highest thing it can cost me. That does not weigh on me because I am not attached to the position. It weighs on me because of my desire to do things,» he added after announcing his resignation, as reported by ‘Observador’.
A few days ago, the Uruguayan weekly Búsqueda published that Peña had obtained a degree in Business Administration from the Catholic University of Uruguay without having finished his degree.
«The mistake was the one I recognized, which I regretted and apologized for. It has to do with having lied about that degree for a while,» he said in a statement to journalists in which he did not accept questions.
Furthermore, Peña has maintained that his conduct has not affected neither the State nor any act of government, because it is a «mistake» of his own. «I must be the first minister in the history of this country to resign for a mistake of this kind,» he insisted.
He also wanted to clarify that he has all the subjects and the thesis approved, while he seeks to enroll «at the first opportunity that exists» in the six-day practical seminar that he has stated is the last requirement he lacks to obtain «the famous title», reports the Uruguayan newspaper ‘El País’.
The hitherto Uruguayan minister thanked the Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, for his support, as well as the political party to which he belongs, Ciudadanos.
Lacalle, after the news, has assured that «there is full conformity» with the management of his former minister and has pointed out that he «values, understands and shares» his resignation.
Robert Bouvier, vice-president of Uruguay’s state-owned telecommunications company Antel, will be the new minister in the Environment portfolio, at Peña’s proposal.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
