A Spanish rightwing politician and former vice-president of the European parliament is reported to be in a stable condition in hospital after being shot in the face by a masked gunman in a wealthy Madrid neighbourhood.
Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a former leader of the conservative People’s party (PP) in Catalonia who joined the far-right Vox party in 2014, was shot on a street in the Salamanca district of the Spanish capital at about 1.30pm local time on Thursday.
Madrid’s emergency services confirmed that a 78-year-old man had received a gunshot wound and said the bullet had passed through his jaw.
El País reported that Vidal-Quadras was in a stable condition in Gregorio Marañon hospital and was being treated for a wound to the face.
The paper said the rightwing politician was attacked as he came out of the building where he lives.
“Initial investigations suggest that two men on a black Yamaha motorbike were involved in the shooting,” El País said. “The gunman, who was wearing a crash helmet, jumped on to the bike after discharging his weapon. The pair then drove off.”
Vidal-Quadras was a longtime member of the PP and a European parliament member before he broke away to help found Vox. He left Vox shortly after a failed attempt to win a European parliament seat in 2014.
Vox’s leader, Santiago Abascal, said he believed that Vidal-Quadras’ life was not in immediate peril. “Thank god it seems that Alejandro Vidal-Quadras is out of danger,” he said.
The PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, deplored the shooting and wished for his recovery.
Spain’s acting prime minister, the socialist leader Pedro Sánchez, conveyed his shock and sadness at the attack. “I offer all my solidarity and my wishes for Alejo Vidal-Quadras’s swift recovery,” he said. “We trust that the investigation will establish the facts and that those responsible will be arrested as soon as possible.”
No motive for the attack has yet been established.
The incident follows a tumultuous few days in Spanish politics. Sánchez moved a step closer to another term in office on Thursday after his socialist party, the PSOE, won the support of Catalan separatists by offering a deeply controversial amnesty for those who took part in the illegal and failed bid for regional independence six years ago.
The proposed amnesty law has been fiercely condemned by the PP and Vox, who see it as a cynical move to allow Sánchez to remain in power. The issue led to angry and violent protests outside the PSOE’s Madrid headquarters this week.
Vidal-Quadras had made his opposition to the amnesty abundantly clear. “The infamous pact … that will crush the rule of law and end the separation of powers has been agreed,” he wrote on X, formerly know as Twitter, on Thursday morning. “Thus will our nation cease to be a liberal democracy and become a totalitarian tyranny. The Spanish people will not allow it.”
Reuters contributed to this report
