José María Aznar
José María Aznar López (born in Madrid on February 25, 1953) has been Spain's Presidente del Gobierno (President of the Government) since 1996, and is correctly referred to in English as the Prime Minister of Spain. The current Head of State is King Juan Carlos I.
He was the grandson of Manuel Aznar Zubigaray, a former Basque nationalist turned Franco supporter. Manuel directed several newspapers and worked as a Spanish diplomat. As a teenager, José María declared to be an "independent Falangist".
He studied law, and then became an inspector for the Spanish Tax Authority. He entered Conservative party Alianza Popular ("People's Alliance"). Member of Parliament for La Rioja, he was later elected to the presidency of Autonomous Community of Castile-Leon. His success earned him the trust of the Galician party leader Manuel Fraga, who appointed him as new party leader. Aznar conducted the refoundation of AP as Partido Popular ("People's Party"), aiming to the political center, embracing economic liberalism without attacking the welfare state.
On April 19, 1995, ETA made an assassination attempt on Aznar. He only survived the attack thanks to his armored car. One woman was killed as a result of the blast.
After a strong campaign against the corruption scandals of Felipe González's PSOE and against González's alleged involvement with the GAL – an illegal anti-terrorist group – Aznar's PP won the 1996 general election. Short of an absolute majority, Aznar had to reach agreements with other parties. After some negotiations, he became Prime Minister with the support of nationalist parties CiU, PNV and Coalición Canaria.
He moved the PP from the Conservative group in the European Parliament to the Christian-democratic European People's Party. His protégé Alejandro Agag, who has since become his son-in-law, succeeded changing the Demochristian International into the Center Democrat International.
His first term was dominated by the economic agenda. Under his management, Spain's economy has shown considerable strength, growing far above its European counterparts. Unemployment has more than halved (from more than 20% in 1996 to little more than 10% in 2003), inflation is now under control and the government budget is in balance for the first time since the return of democracy. As a result of all these, Spain qualified to join the European single currency – the euro – in 1998, against all odds.
Aznar was re-elected with an absolute majority in 2000 and declared he will not opt for a third term, fulfilling an electoral promise made before his election in 1996. In September 2003 Mariano Rajoy was chosen as the PP's candidate for the elections held in March 2004, which the PP lost.
His second term has been more political. Although still orthodox and getting good results, Aznar has somehow stopped his economic reformism (foot-turning on a controversial reform of the labour market). His government has been more interested in securing Spain's position in Europe and the world and in Spain's difficulties in dealing with separatism. Aznar and his party have adopted a firm defense of the current wording of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and the rule of law, strongly opposing a plan for further Basque autonomy presented by Basque president Juan José Ibarretxe.
He actively supported US President George W. Bush and the international intervention in Iraq in 2003. In spite of the opposition of a large part of the media and public opinion to that support, his PP party conserved most of the popular support at the May 2003 local elections.
He is a friend of Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and Britain's Tony Blair. He is married to Ana María Botella with two sons and a daughter, Ana Aznar Botella, who married Alejandro Agag in 2002 in a high-profile wedding at El Escorial.
He requested the dissolution of the Cortes and new elections in January 2004, and announced he would not be seeking the prime minister's office again.
External links
- Fundaciò Cidob. Biography in Spanish.
- Satirical site with lots of biographical information, photographs, and commentary.
- La obra que España espera, the letter from 1969, declaring himself as an independent Falangist.