The Premier of Madrid region in Spain, Cristina Cifuentes, has resigned from office on Wednesday following the leak of a 2011 video of her shoplifting cosmetic products.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday morning, Cifuentes announced she was quitting.

“In the political situation in which we are living through, and after having spoken to my team about it, I’m announcing my resignation as the premier of the Madrid region,” she said.

“In life, you have to think about the general interest above the interests of just one person,” she added.

However, she sought to play down the importance of the video that was made public on Wednesday, claiming that she was the victim of a “campaign of harassment and demolition that has gone beyond politics,” reports spanish newspaper, El Pais.

Cifuentes, who is a member of the Popular Party, had been under increasing pressure to resign in recent weeks due to irregularities related to a Master’s degree she obtained in 2012.

She took the decision to leave office after the video surfaced.

It was a Spanish website, OKDiario, that published images from a security camera of the politician emptying out a bag in the presence of the guard.

She is then seen to be showing him several products before handing over a sum of money.

The recording of the alleged shoplifting incident was made on May 4, 2011.

The supermarket where it took place is very close to the Madrid regional assembly, where Cifuentes was deputy speaker at the time, reports El Pais.

Sources close to Cifuentes admitted that the person in the video was her, and police sources have said that the shoplifting incident did happen, but that there was no official police record of it.