From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Spanish politician and radiation physicist (born 1945)
In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal
surnameis
Vidal-Quadrasand the second or maternal family name is
Roca.
Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca (born 20 May 1945) is a Spanish former politician and radiation physicist. Born in Barcelona, he served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2014 and served as First Vice President of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2007.
Vidal-Quadras was elected on the People's Party ticket and sat with the European People's Party group. In 2014, he announced that he was leaving the People's Party for a new party, Vox. He was the frontrunner for Vox in the 2014 European election, but the party failed to win a seat. He is a member of the European Friends of Israel, a lobby group aiming to defend Israel's interests within the European Union.[1]
Relationship with Iran[edit]In 2013 EL Pais reported that 35 Iranian dissidents said to be affiliated to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) gave VOX about one million euros. According to Vidal-Quadras, the donations were not made to VOX but to himself.[2]
After 2014, Vidal-Quadras operated pro bono the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ), a Brussels-based lobby supporting the NCRI against the Iranian government.[3][4]
Vidal-Quadras has aligned with People's Mojahedin of Iran, which led the Iranian Foreign Ministry to impose sanctions on him in 2023. The Iran Foreign Ministry accused Vidal-Quadras of "supporting terrorism and terrorist groups" while Maryam Rajavi said that "Prof. Vidal-Quadras has dedicated an important part of his life to fight against [Iran's ruling religious fascism]".[5]
Attempted assassination[edit]On 9 November 2023, Vidal-Quadras was shot in the face in Madrid[6] by a person on a motorbike in Calle de Núñez de Balboa [es] at 1:30 p.m. local time.[5][7] He was taken to hospital and was described as recovering after suffering a fracture on his jawbone that required surgery.[5] The assassination attempt is being investigated as a possible terrorist attack.[8][9] On November 21, Spanish police arrested three people in connection to the shooting.[10]
Vidal-Quadras has claimed that Iran was behind the attempted assassination.[11] According to Vidal-Quadras, his connection to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an Iranian opposition group, could be linked to the assassination attempt.[12] To date, eight people have been arrested, including Mehrez Ayari who is linked to the Mocro Maffia.[13][14] Sami Bekal Bounouare, a Palma-born man believed to be the mastermind behind the attack, remains at large.[15]
Vidal-Quadras is one of the first politicians that Tehran has added to their terrorist list.[16] The Iranian opposition attributes the authorship to Religious Fascism that governs the country.[17][18] In 2019 Vidal-Quadras stated that he considers the Iranian regime a cruel dictatorship which foments terrorism.[19] He is the first European politician to be targeted within Europe.[20]
In January 2024, a suspect in the assassination attempt was arrested in Colombia. Currently four individuals have been arrested in connection with the shooting, while the alleged shooter, a French citizen of Tunisian descent with multiple prior convictions in France, is still at large.
Also Vidal-Quadras called for a change in the EU policy towards the Islamic Republic to avoid trying to "appease, to negotiate, to dialogue and to make concessions".[21]
Political positions[edit]Alejo Vidal-Quadras defines himself as liberal-conservative. He is the founder of far-right political party Vox, and is opposed to abortion rights and gay marriage.[22][23]
He currently lives off his pensions as a former university professor and a former member of the European Parliament.[3] In addition to serving in the European Parliament, he has occupied several elected positions in Spain: he was a member of the Barcelona City Council (1987–1991), member of the Parliament of Catalonia (1988–1996) and Senator in the Spanish Senate (1996–1999).
Books about politics[edit]PRESIDENT Alejo Vidal Quadras
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4