Veteran Spanish politician Alejandro Vidal-Quadras has been taken to a hospital in Madrid after being shot in a street in the capital on Thursday, November 9th, reports AP. Police said he was shot in the face on a central street around 1:30 p.m. local time and was conscious when taken to a hospital.
Vidal-Quadras, 78, was a long-time member of Spain’s centre-right People’s Party, its regional leader in Catalonia, and a European Parliament member before he broke away to help found the conservative-nationalist VOX party. He left VOX shortly after a failed attempt to win a European lawmaker seat in 2014.
According to Reuters, Spanish police are hunting two men in connection with the shooting who were on a black Yamaha motorbike. The gunman, who was wearing a helmet, stopped and got off to shoot Vidal-Quadras. After the shooting, both men escaped on the motorbike.
VOX President Santiago Abascal said he believed Vidal-Quadras’ life was not in immediate danger. “Thank God it seems that Alejandro Vidal-Quadras is out of danger,” Abascal said. People’s Party President Alberto Núñez Feijóo deplored the shooting and wished for his recovery.
“I want to convey my solidarity and wishes for a speedy recovery to Alejo Vidal-Quadras. All my affection at this time for him and his family,” Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez posted on social media on Thursday.
Vidal-Quadras hasn’t been active in politics for several years, but he has maintained a public role as a media commentator and columnist.
The shooting comes with the rise of tension in Spanish politics. Today Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez clinched a controversial deal to remain in power by offering amnesty to Catalan separatists, raising tensions across the country. Throughout September and October, a series of demonstrations against these plans drew crowds of up to 200,000, and last weekend, the momentum continued with spontaneous protests.
