Published by the French Daily Le Monde, on February 14, 2025
On November 9 last year, Spanish political leader Alejo Vidal-Quadras escaped an assassination attempt in broad daylight in Madrid. He immediately accused the Iranian regime. The chief suspect, a man from greater Paris, was arrested in the Netherlands on June 6.
He has never seen the face of the man who tried to kill him. He barely heard his voice. Alejo Vidal-Quadras was on his way home from his customary stroll in Madrid’s Retiro Park when a figure behind him uttered the words: “Hola señor.”
At 1:30 pm on Thursday, November 9, 2023, the street he was walking on, Calle Nuñez de Balboa, was packed with people. The 78-year-old Spanish politician, who was vice president of the European Parliament before founding the far-right Vox party, was just a few steps from the entrance to his building. “I turned around and made a movement that saved my life,” he told Le Monde. “I tilted my head.” The man behind him pulled the trigger, but the 9mm Parabellum bullet that should have split his skull went through his jaw instead.
Passers-by rushed to the aid of the politician as he staggered on the pavement. One man took off his jacket and pressed it against his wounds to stem the bleeding until help arrived. Vidal-Quadras then spent 16 days in hospital, where he underwent facial reconstruction. A few weeks later, when Spanish investigators came to question him at his home, he didn’t hesitate for a second: He accused the Iranian regime of being behind his assassination attempt.
Vidal-Quadras heard only two words and the crack of a gunshot before collapsing. But passers-by described his assailant. Dressed in a blue jacket and wearing a motorcycle helmet, the gunman fled on a black Yamaha scooter, an accomplice waiting for him, before vanishing into the streets of Madrid.
