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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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MIDDLE EAST CRISIS

Spain’s PM to set date for recognition of Palestinian state on Wednesday

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Friday he will on Wednesday announce the date on which Madrid will recognise a Palestinian state along with other nations.

Published: 17 May 2024 16:24 CEST
Spain's PM to set date for recognition of Palestinian state on Wednesday

“We are in the process of coordinating with other countries,” he said during an interview with private Spanish television station La Sexta when asked if this step would be taken on Tuesday as announced by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Sanchez said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta had agreed to take the first steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.

Borrell told Spanish public radio last week that Spain, Ireland and Slovenia planned to symbolically recognise a Palestinian state on May 21, saying he had been given this date by Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares.

Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said Tuesday that Dublin was certain to recognise Palestinian statehood by the end of the month but the “specific date is still fluid”.

So far, 137 of the 193 UN member states have recognised a Palestinian state, according to figures provided by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

Despite the growing number of EU countries in favour of such a move, neither France nor Germany support the idea. Western powers have long argued such recognition should only happen as part of a negotiated peace with Israel.

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