In the corridors of Congress, the far-right agitator Víctor Zoppellari Quiles, known as Vito Quiles, was seen this Thursday talking normally and closely with several deputies from the PP leadership. The activist has a close relationship with the Popular Party, who invited him to their campaign closing event for the recent Aragón elections, although not without internal controversy. One of his main defenders in the PP is the secretary general, Miguel Tellado, who considers that, with “his courage and boldness,” Quiles “manages to give voice to what others do not dare.” Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s number two has come out in defense of the agitator today after the incident he had yesterday with the wife of the Prime Minister, Begoña Gómez, who has reported him for an attempted assault. Tellado emphasized that in the footage of what happened ―although only those recorded, edited, and disseminated by Quiles himself are known― “the assaulted is a journalist.”
The secretary general of the Popular Party began “condemning all kinds of violence” and asked “for the facts to be clarified,” but he did not stop there and defended Quiles in the incident with the Prime Minister’s wife. “In any case,” Tellado stressed, “I have seen images where I believe I can make out that the assaulted is a journalist. I do not know of other images that depict a different scene. The images that all Spaniards have been able to see are ones in which a socialist militant assaulted, and one must see in what manner, a journalist.” “If the PSOE wants to condemn that violence, it would do well to dismiss that PSOE official from Torrelodones,” Tellado concluded.
The images referred to by the PP secretary general, the only ones seen, are those recorded, edited, and disseminated by the far-right agitator himself on his social media. However, the version from Begoña Gómez’s circle is different. The Prime Minister’s wife reported the activist for an alleged assault against her at noon on Wednesday inside a restaurant in Madrid. Gómez was accompanied by a man and two friends when Quiles approached her and prevented her from going outside, according to sources from La Moncloa, who claim that Quiles harassed Gómez and her companions inside the establishment, located in Las Rozas de Madrid. The venue has security cameras, but those images have not yet been released.
The PP parliamentary spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, reasoned that “Mrs. Begoña Gómez will have to give many explanations” and understands “that there are journalists who want to ask Mrs. Gómez questions.” Muñoz has “condemned any kind of violence, including against the journalist” and referred to the judicial process because the matter is already “in the courts.”
Quiles moves like a fish in water among PP politicians, whom he has never harassed with his questions, which he reserves only for progressive leaders and journalists. The agitator has welcomed that Pedro Sánchez has “suspended his agenda” following the complaint filed by his wife, Begoña Gómez, and in a message on his social media he concluded: “Apreteu, it works.”
Although the activist is accredited to cover parliamentary information, Congress opened an expulsion file against him last December for having recorded the Prime Minister in an unauthorized area, as denounced by the Association of Parliamentary Journalists (APP). The procedure against Quiles is in its final phase and could result in the withdrawal of his accreditation for up to three months. The agitator enjoys great popularity on social media for provoking, microphone in hand, confrontations with politicians and journalists he considers progressive on the street. Quiles has also been involved in numerous other incidents against political leaders, always nationalists or left-wing, during their appearances before the media in the Chamber.
In 2024, the APP already condemned the fact that Quiles, who had run on the electoral lists for the European Parliament for the far-right formation Se Acabó La Fiesta, acted as a parliamentary journalist. More recently, last February, the PP included the activist in its campaign closing event in Aragón and he has also been invited to events of Nuevas Generaciones, the youth wing of the PP, in Madrid.
Quiles is being prosecuted for an alleged crime of slander and libel for messages and publications he issued against the secretary general of the consumer organization Facua, Rubén Sánchez, between February 15 and September 22, 2022. The private prosecution requests nine years in prison for Vito Quiles for three crimes of libel with the aggravating factor of ideological hatred. There is also a lawsuit against Quiles for revealing secrets filed by the head of Red Eléctrica, Beatriz Corredor.