The founder of the Spanish far-right party Vox was shot on the street in Madrid, his condition is serious

Alejo Vidal-Quadras was walking alone on the sidewalk in Madrid’s upscale Salamanca district around noon Thursday when a motorcycle with two riders approached him. The man in the back seat, who was wearing a black helmet, shot the politician in the head from a distance of about two meters. The perpetrators then hurriedly fled the scene and the police are looking for them, El Mundo newspaper reports.

Vidal-Quadras is a former People’s Party MP. In 2013, he was one of the founders of the new far-right party Vox.

The political atmosphere in Spain is heated these days due to negotiations between representatives of the Socialists (PSOE) and Catalan separatists to support the new government in exchange for amnesty for separatist leaders. Representatives of both parties announced the agreement on Thursday morning.

Vox strongly criticizes the negotiations with the Catalan separatists, and in recent days its leaders have participated in mass demonstrations against the amnesty. It is not yet clear whether the assassination of Vidal-Quadras has anything to do with it.