Veteran Spanish right-wing politician Alejandro Vidal-Quadras has been taken to hospital in Madrid after being shot in a street, police have said.
The 78-year-old was hit in the face in a central street in the capital at about 1.30pm local time and conscious when taken to hospital, police added.
According to Spanish state news agency EFE, police believe the suspect was a person who escaped the scene on a motorbike wearing a black helmet.
Around four hours after the shooting took place, Madrid’s Gregorio Maranon hospital issued its first public medical report on Mr Vidal-Quadras’s condition. The hospital said that the gunshot had fractured his jawbone and that he will undergo surgery. It said he was in a stable condition and his life was not in danger.
Mr Vidal-Cuadras was a long-time member of Spain’s conservative Popular Party, its regional leader in Catalonia, and a European Parliament member before he broke away to help found the far-right Vox party.
He left Vox just after a failed bid to win a European seat in 2014.
Police are investigating the shooting.
Vox president Santiago Abascal said he believed Mr Vidal-Quadras’ life was not in immediate danger.
“Thank God it seems that Alejandro Vidal-Quadras is out of danger,” Mr Abascal said.
Popular Party president Alberto Nunez Feijoo deplored the shooting and wished for Mr Vidal-Quadras’ recovery.
Mr Vidal-Quadras has not been active in politics for several years, but he has maintained a public role as a media commentator and columnist.
He served as a vice president for the European Parliament and took a heavy interest in foreign affairs, participating in the legislature’s delegations to the former Soviet republics Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
