All Dictatorships Are Mortal

An extraordinary meeting with Alejo Vidal-Quadras

It was with these words that Jean-François Legaret, President of FEMO, closed an extraordinary meeting with Paris-based journalists on Tuesday, 27 May 2025, near the National Assembly, on the occasion of a visit by Professor Alejo Vidal-Quadras, former Spanish Vice-President of the European People’s Party (EPP), and a political target who survived an assassination attempt orchestrated by the Iranian regime on 9 November 2023.

This high-security meeting, bringing together the national and international press, highlighted the very real threats facing supporters of the Iranian people, even beyond the borders of the Islamic Republic.

Having miraculously survived being shot in the face outside his home in Madrid, Professor Alejo Vidal-Quadras gave a harrowing account of the state terrorism practised by Iran’s theocratic regime, while also issuing a passionate appeal for a free, democratic and secular Iran.

The first European politician to have been targeted by an attack ordered by Tehran on European soil, the former MEP described this commando assassination attempt as the visible part of a vast transnational repression system, involving the use of European criminal networks — including mafias such as the “Mocro-Maffia” — to carry out terrorist operations on European soil with the aim of assassinating opponents of the Iranian regime.

This strategy, revealed by intelligence services, notably Dutch, reportedly aims to eliminate political opponents and dissidents in Europe while minimising the Iranian state’s direct involvement, thereby providing a form of plausible deniability.

The testimony of the former EPP Vice-President highlights a worrying evolution in the methods used by the Iranian regime to eliminate its opponents abroad, and raises questions about the safety of dissidents in Europe, as well as the need for a more coordinated and determined response from European authorities.

Professor Alejo Vidal-Quadras notably recalled the attempted bomb attack against the NCRI’s annual gathering in Villepinte in 2018, where more than 80,000 people — including numerous parliamentarians, elected officials and foreign dignitaries — were exposed to a direct threat, the declared aim of which was the elimination of Maryam Rajavi; the many collateral casualties that would have resulted already revealed the criminal hand of the Iranian regime and its methods, combining terrorism, criminality and diplomacy.

Asked about Western diplomacy toward such a regime, Professor Alejo Vidal-Quadras expressed dismay at the European approach, describing it as “naïve” and denouncing the illusion of sincere dialogue with a regime that uses negotiations — particularly on the nuclear issue — merely as a means of buying time and reducing international pressure, without ever honouring its commitments.

He also highlighted the inaction of certain European governments, which he said gave an impression of a certain “complacency” toward the Iranian regime, calling for firmer measures such as the expulsion of Iranian diplomatic agents involved in intelligence activities and the closure of embassies used for repressive purposes.

For more than an hour, Professor Vidal-Quadras engaged in a candid, no-holds-barred exchange — a man who, like so many other fervent defenders of human rights, has paid a heavy price for his convictions, offering international media, the Iranian people, and the very regime that targets him proof of an unshaken determination to put an end to the tyranny of the mullahs.

For him, no threat can silence those who fight for freedom, justice and fundamental rights.

Jean-François Legaret summed up the spirit of the meeting in one uncompromising phrase:

“All dictatorships are mortal” — affirming that, sooner or later, regimes built on repression and fear collapse in the face of peoples’ unshakeable will.