The former head of Spain’s People's Party in the Catalonia region was shot in the face in the Salamanca district of Madrid.
“Alejo Vidal-Quadras, the former leader of Spain’s center-right People’s Party in the region of Catalonia, was shot in the face in the wealthy Salamanca area of Madrid on Thursday afternoon, police have stated. The 78-year-old survived the incident, reports say, and has been transported to a hospital in the Spanish capital.
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| Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca |
The incident, described in media reports as an ‘execution-style shooting’, is thought to have been carried out by a single gunman at a point-blank range, who escaped from the scene on a motorcycle, according to The Mirror.
Police have requested that any dash cam or security cameras that may have captured the shooting be handed over to authorities in a bid to identify the suspect.
Vidal-Quadras, who was conscious when transported to hospital, is undergoing emergency surgery. He was shot shortly after leaving a mass, the publication added, and was on his way to a demonstration at the nearby European Parliament headquarters.
In the hours before the shooting, Vidal-Quadras had posted on social media about a possible amnesty for Catalonian separatists if they would offer support to a new socialist-led government in Madrid. The ‘infamous pact’, Vidal-Quadras said, would ‘crush the rule of law in Spain’ which he said would turn the EU country into a ‘totalitarian tyranny’.
He added that ‘we Spaniards will not allow it’”. -RT
While the Western media reports that the supposed attempted assassination may have been acting on the orders of Tehran owing to the former member of the European Parliament’s links to an Iranian opposition group, given Vidal-Quadras Roca’s strong pro-Spanish unity sentiments, it adds insult to injury, for want of a better term, that his shooting happened to occur just as Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reached an agreement with the fringe Catalan separatist Junts per Catalunya party by granting amnesty to those who participated in a failed bid for regional independence six years back in an attempt to secure the support of Catalan independence parties for his reelection bid after an inconclusive national election back in July.
