Spain’s Defense Secretary General Miguel Angel Villaroya resigned from his post following reports that he had received the coronavirus vaccine ahead of other priority groups, according to a Reuters report.
Villaroya resigned on Saturday after receiving public backlash for allegedly skipping the line to be vaccinated. Like many other countries, including the United States, Spain preferred health workers and the elderly, two of the most exposed and vulnerable groups to the virus.
Defense Secretary Margarita Robles allegedly spoke to Villaroya after reports of his vaccination surfaced Friday to ask if the wire service was true.
Robles did not explicitly say whether Villaroya received the vaccine in the statement on his resignation, but did say that Villaroya ‘never intended to take advantage of unjustifiable privileges that damaged the image of the military and called into question the honor of the general. did not ‘according to Reuters.
Villaroya was at daily media conferences to represent the military and inform the public about how troops helped take care of its citizens last year.
The wire service reported that the general’s actions had damaged the image of the army in Spain.
Robles’ statement said Villaroya “made decisions he considered correct”, but the decisions “damaged the public image of the military”.
The news comes as several public figures in the country have made headlines because they have reached the priority line in Spain.
The country was also one of the hardest hit in Europe after France, and has seen a death toll of more than 55,000 since the pandemic began with cases still rising. The country has nearly 2.5 million cases of coronavirus.