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Dutch woman arrested over shooting of right-wing Spanish politician

A Dutch woman was arrested in the Netherlands in relation to an attack on a right-wing Spanish politician who was shot in Madrid, Spanish police said on Tuesday.

Published: 1 May 2024 08:18 CEST

Former leader of Spain's main right-wing political party in Catalonia and co-founder of far-right party Vox, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, holds his first press conference since he was shot

Former leader of Spain's main right-wing political party in Catalonia and co-founder of far-right party Vox, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, holds his first press conference since he was shot last November, in Madrid on February 23, 2024. A Dutch woman has been arrested over the attack. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a founder of Spain’s far-right Vox party, was shot in the face in broad daylight near his home in the upscale Salamanca neighbourhood on November 9 by a motorcycle passenger.

Long a supporter of the Iranian opposition, the 78-year-old Vidal-Quadras has accused the Iranian regime of involvement in the shooting.

Four people had already been arrested as part of the investigation into the shooting, but the suspected gunman — a French national of Tunisian origin with several previous convictions in France — remains at large.

“A woman was arrested in Holland for her alleged participation in the financing and preparation of the attack on Vidal-Quadras,” the national police said in a brief statement.

Police said she was detained after Spain issued a European arrest warrant.

Vidal-Quadras was a member and then vice-president of the European Parliament between 1994 and 2014.

He was also a former head of the centre-right People’s Party in Catalonia.

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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.”

🔴ÚLTIMA HORA

Albares anuncia que España retira a su embajadora en Buenos Aireshttps://t.co/YG2YEjFBeX pic.twitter.com/owBjSsJ1hM

— RTVE Noticias (@rtvenoticias) May 21, 2024

“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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