Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca (born 20 May 1945 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

) is a Spanish politician and

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, vi ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

who served as a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Commu ...

from 1999 to 2014 and served as First Vice President of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2007. He was elected on the People's Party ticket and sat with the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Fo ...

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 The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded cand ...

, but the party failed to win a seat. It was through his contacts in the

National Council of Resistance of Iran The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI; fa, شورای ملی مقاومت ایران, Šurā-ye melli-e moqāvemat-e Īrān) is an Iranian political organization based in France and Albania. The organization is a political coalitio ...

(NCRI) that the party received about one million euros to bootstrap its campaign. After its 2014 failure, Vidal-Quadras operated the International Committee in Search of Justice, a Brussels-based lobby supporting the NCRI against the Iranian government. He is a member of the European Friends of Israel, a lobby group aiming to defend Israel's interests within the European Union. Alejo Vidal-Quadras defines himself as liberal-conservative. He is opposed to abortion rights and gay marriage. He currently lives off his pensions as a former university professor and a former member of the European Parliament. 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 The Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Parlament de Catalunya, ; es, Parlamento de Cataluña; oc, Parlament de Catalonha) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain ...

(1988–1996) and Senator in the

Spanish Senate The Senate ( es, Senado) is the upper house of the Cortes Generales, which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid. Th ...

(1996–1999).

References

1945 births Living people People from Barcelona Members of the Parliament of Catalonia Members of the Senate of Spain MEPs for Spain 1999–2004 MEPs for Spain 2004–2009 MEPs for Spain 2009–2014 Vox (political party) politicians Members of the 5th Parliament of Catalonia {{Spain-MEP-stub