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Founder of Spain’s far-right Vox shot in the face in Madrid

Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca, one of the founders of Spain’s far-right party Vox and the former head of Spain’s Popular Party in Catalonia, has been seriously injured after being shot in the face in broad daylight in Madrid.

Published: 9 November 2023 16:55 CET
Founder of Spain's far-right Vox shot in the face in Madrid
Vidal-Quadras was shot in the face in broad daylight in Madrid on November 9th 2023. (Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP)

Emergency services in the Spanish capital on Thursday November 9th rushed Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca (78) to Madrid’s Gregorio Marañón hospital after receiving a bullet to the jaw.

Although he has been seriously injured, Vox’s leader Santiago Abascal has claimed his life is not in danger.

“He was conscious and taken to hospital,” a police source told news agency AFP, adding that the National Police homicide unit was leading the investigation.

The shooting took place at around 1.30pm in Madrid’s upmarket Salamanca district.

READ ALSO: Who shot the founder of Spain’s far-right Vox party?

Spanish media has reported that a person on a motorbike approached the politician and fired at him at point-blank range. 

Forensic police staff members investigate the scene after Alejo Vidal Quadras was shot and injured in Núñez de Balboa Street in Madrid on November 9, 2023. (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP)
 

Police have not yet arrested or identified the perpetrator.

Although the reason for the attack is also unknown, it comes at a time of heightened political tensions in Spain, with right-wing demonstrations taking place across the country to protest the amnesty acting PM Pedro Sánchez has granted Catalan separatists in return for their support.

Vidal-Quadras, a former vice president of the European Parliament, founded Vox in 2013 together with other right-wing politicians.

He was also the president of Spain’s centre-right Popular Party in Catalonia from 1991 to 1996.

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POLITICS

Diplomatic crisis deepens as Spain pulls out Argentina ambassador

A diplomatic crisis sparked by Argentina President Javier Milei calling Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's wife "corrupt" deepened Tuesday with the "definitive" withdrawal of Madrid's ambassador to Buenos Aires.

Published: 21 May 2024 14:09 CEST
Diplomatic crisis deepens as Spain pulls out Argentina ambassador

Spain withdrew its ambassador to Argentina at the weekend and Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said that the envoy “will remain definitively in Madrid. Argentina will no longer have a Spanish ambassador.”

“We did not provoke this situation, but it is the government’s obligation to defend the dignity and sovereignty of Spanish institutions,” Albares told a news conference following a regular weekly cabinet meeting.

“There is no precedent for a head of state coming to the capital of another country to insult its institutions and blatantly interfere in its internal affairs,’ he added.

Milei said the decision was “absurd, typical of an arrogant socialist,” adding he would not withdraw the Argentina ambassador from Madrid in return.

Argentina’s outspoken president caused outrage with an attack on socialism at the weekend while at a Madrid conference organised by the far-right Vox party.

“The global elites don’t realise how destructive it can be to implement the ideas of socialism,” Milei said.

“They don’t know the type of society and country that can produce, the type of people clinging to power and the level of abuse that generates.”

He added: “When you have a corrupt wife, let’s say, it gets dirty, and you take five days to think about it.”

Sánchez, a Socialist, recently considered resigning after Spanish prosecutors opened a preliminary corruption investigation against his wife, Begoña Gómez, which was quickly closed.

READ ALSO: Who is Begoña Gómez? Spanish PM’s partner thrust into spotlight

Within hours of Milei’s attack, Spain recalled its ambassador and Albares slammed the visiting president’s “insult”.

He demanded a “public apology” from Milei, saying that Madrid would not exclude the possibility of rupturing diplomatic ties. Sánchez also called on Milei to retract his comments.

Milei kept up his attacks against Sánchez when he returned to Buenos Aires on Monday, describing the Spanish premier as a “coward”.

“I am in no way going to apologise to him,’ he said during an interview with the TN channel.

“I’m the one who was attacked,” he added, recalling that representatives of the Spanish government had described him as “xenophobic, racist, ultra-right…a science denier, a misogynist”.

Business concerns

Milei arrived in Spain on Friday and there was immediate diplomatic friction as no meetings with Sánchez or King Felipe VI were organised during his stay.

A self-declared “anarcho-capitalist”, Milei won elections last November with a vow to cut Argentina’s vast public debt to zero. He has instituted an austerity programme that has seen the government slash public subsidies.

But he has also become known for his controversial remarks.

There has been weeks of rising diplomatic tensions between Spain and Argentina leading up to the latest spat.

Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente angered Buenos Aires by suggesting earlier this month that Milei was on drugs.

Puente later said he had made a “mistake”, saying he was not aware of the repercussions his comments would have, and Buenos Aires said the dispute was “over”.

The weeks of mounting tensions are starting to worry Spanish companies that invest $15 billion a year in Argentina.

Spanish companies are the second largest investors in Argentina behind US enterprises. The CEOE business federation chief, Antonio Garamendi, said Milei’s attack could “damage” exchanges.

Spanish companies, including banks BBVA and Banco Santander and Zara-owner Inditex, the world’s biggest fashion retailers, are the second largest investors in Argentina behind US enterprises.

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