Spain’s Chief of Defense Staff, Gen. Miguel Ángel Villarroya, resigned from his position after reports that he received the coronavirus vaccine ahead of other priority groups, according to a report from Reuters.
Villarroya resigned on Saturday after receiving public backlash for allegedly skipping the line to get inoculated. Like many other countries, including the United States, Spain has prioritized health care workers and the elderly, two of the most exposed and vulnerable groups to the virus.
Defense Minister Margarita Robles reportedly talked to Villarroya after reports of his vaccination emerged on Friday to ask if they were true, according to the wire service.
Robles did not explicitly say if Villarroya got the vaccine in the statement about his resignation but did say that Villarroya “never intended to take advantage of unjustifiable privileges which damaged the image of the Armed Forces and put in doubt the honour of the general,” according to Reuters.
Villarroya was at daily media briefings to represent the military and update the public on how troops were helping care for citizens last year when the pandemic began.
The wire service reported that the general’s actions had damaged the image of the armed forces in Spain.
Robles’s statement said Villarroya “took decisions which he thought to be correct” but those decisions “damaged the public image of the Armed Forces.”
The news comes as several public figures have made waves in the country for jumping the priority line in Spain.
The country has also been 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 going up. The country is at almost 2.5 million coronavirus cases.