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Suspect held in Spain over ‘attempted terrorist assassination’

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, co-founder of Spain's far-right Vox party, was shot in the head earlier this month. The police now have a suspect in detention.

Published: 25 November 2023 10:13 CET

Spanish police investigate after far-right politician Alejo Vidal-Quadras was shot earlier this month.

Spanish police investigate after far-right politician Alejo Vidal-Quadras was shot earlier this month. (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP)

A suspect has been remanded in custody for the “attempted terrorist assassination” of a co-founder of Spain’s far-right Vox party, the High Court in Madrid announced Friday.

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a former leader of Spain’s main right-wing political party in Catalonia who went on to co-found Vox, was shot in the head in Madrid earlier this month.

“The judge has decided to remand the detainee in Lanjaron”, in the south of Spain, “in custody for the offence of attempted terrorist assassination”, the court said in a statement.

His girlfriend, arrested with him on Monday in Lanjaron, has been released on parole, as has a third suspect, arrested on Monday in the southern city of Malaga.

The three suspects are not “the direct perpetrators” of the crime, the police said in a statement.

The main suspect, accused of shooting the politician, is still being sought by the police, who have identified him as a “Frenchman of Tunisian origin with several previous convictions in France, his country of residence”.

The three other suspects, one British and the others Spanish, are suspected of having provided logistical assistance, said police.

Vidal-Quadras was leader of the conservative PP party in the northeastern Catalonia region in the 1990s. He went on to be an MEP and then was among the founders of Vox, which he left shortly after its creation.

Following the shooting on November 9, he was taken to Madrid’s Gregorio Maranon hospital, which said in a statement on Thursday that he would be discharged after suffering a double fracture of the jaw.

Vidal-Quadras, who is close to the exiled Iranian opposition, has accused the leaders in Tehran of being behind the assassination attempt, according to those close to him.

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Who will win the European elections in Spain?

From June 6th to 9th, millions of people across Europe will go to the polls to elect members of the world’s only multinational parliament. In Spain polling day is, as always, on Sunday, so Spaniards will head to the polls on June 9th.

This comes at a politically delicate time not only around the world (economic uncertainty, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, major elections in India, the U.S and U.K this year, among other issues) but also in Spain.

After the Spanish government finally passed its controversial amnesty law for Catalan separatists on May 30th, many political pundits in the country are viewing the upcoming European polls as a referendum on the government and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in particular. If the Spanish right win a comfortable victory, as most polls predict, they may call for a general election.

READ ALSO: 10 things you should know about the European Parliamentary elections

If you’ve followed Spanish politics in the last year or so, you’ll know that it’s been something of a telenovela (soap opera), even by Spanish standards. Whether it be surprise snap general elections, Catalan separatists propping up the government, Spain’s Transport Minister saying the Argentinian President was on drugs, or Sánchez’s jaw-dropping five day sabbatical to decide whether or not he wanted to continue, Spanish politics is many things but certainly never boring.

We won’t go into too much detail now, but you can find all The Local’s political coverage here to get up to speed.

The important thing to understand is the political unpredictability that makes up the background to these European elections. And like with local and regional elections in Spain, these European results will be picked apart by politicians and pundits alike in order to score points, find deeper meaning and underlying trends, and make predictions about what they mean for the future.

READ ALSO: Spanish parliament approves controversial Catalan amnesty bill

Following recent regional elections in Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia, and on the back of regional and general elections last year, at times it can feel like Spanish politics is a never ending series of elections.

As such, Spanish pollsters are always busy. In recent weeks, they’ve turned their attention to the European elections.

Let’s take a look at some of the polls and what they’re predicting.

CIS

The pre-election poll conducted by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) gives Sánchez’s Socialists (PSOE) a considerable lead over the right-wing Partido Popular (PP). It is worth noting here that the CIS is state-run, and therefore sometimes accused of being overly sympathetic to the government of the day, in this case PSOE.

CIS estimates that the PSOE will obtain between 32.8 percent and 35.2 percent of the vote, winning between 21 and 24 seats, followed by the PP with between 27.9 percent and 30.2 percent, which would give them between 18 and 20 MEPs.

In third place would be far-right Vox with 5 or 6 projected seats on between 8.6 percent and 10.1 percent of the vote.

On the far-left, Spain’s parties have been divided of late. In short, there’s been a split between Sumar, the current junior coalition member in government, and Podemos, the former junior coalition member in government. An interesting wrinkle to the European campaign is the reemergence of Irene Montero, Spain’s controversial former Equalities Minister, onto the political scene, who will be heading the Podemos list.

CIS projects Sumar will win 4 MEPs with between 5.9 percent and 7.2 percent of the vote.

Podemos is, according to CIS, on course for a vote share somewhere in the range of 4.4-5.4 percent, which would garner 2 or 3 seats. In 2019, the two parties ran together as Unidas Podemos and obtained 10.17 percent and 6 MEPs, so the split could propel the far-right into third place in Spain.

NC Report

The NC Report poll commissioned for La Razón published paints a very different picture to the CIS results, and gives the PP a comfortable victory. NC polling has the PP winning 36.1 percent of the vote and 24-25 seats. If the PP do win, it’s likely that it will heap pressure on Sánchez and call for a general election.

PSOE were projected to win 27.9 percent of the vote, almost ten points behind the PP, and 19 seats.

Where the NC poll does mirror the CIS results is that it puts Voxs in third place (9 percent of the vote, 6 seats).

Of the other parties, it has Sumar (6.8 percent, 4 seats), Ahora Repúblicas (5.2 percent, 3 seats), Podemos (3 percent, 2 seats), and Catalan separatists Junts (2.9 percent, 1-2 seats).

Sigma Dos

The Sigma Dos poll published by El Mundo also gives victory to the PP with 35.1 percent of the vote and 24-25 seats.

The PSOE would come second and win 19-20 seats with 30.2 percent of the vote.

Sigma Dos also had Vox in third place (meaning all three major polls had the same result) obtaining 9.7 percent of the vote and 6 or 7 seats. Sumar was projected to win 7 percent of the vote and 4-5 seats, followed by Podemos (2 seats), Junts (1 seat) and new upstart political party ‘Se acabó la fiesta’ (1-2 seats)

For more on the 2024 European elections across Europe visit The Local Europe’s special election web page.

CIS is the only major poll putting the PSOE on course for victory.

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