About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

José María Aznar

Encyclopedia : J : JO : JOS : José María Aznar


[José María Alfredo Aznar López] ([Media helphelp]·[info]) (born in Madrid on February 25, 1953) is a Spanish politician who served as the Prime Minister of Spain (officially, "president of the Spanish government") from 1996 to 2004. 





Contents




Early times

José María Aznar is the grandson of Manuel Aznar Zubigaray, a prominent journalist during the Franco era.  He studied law at the Complutense University, graduating in 1975, becoming a Spanish Tax Authority inspector in 1976. In 1977 he married Ana Botella.



Politician

As a teenager, Aznar was member of the Frente de Estudiantes Sindicalistas (FES), a student union which was a branch of the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista (FET-JONS), the falangist official party. After the death of Francisco Franco and the reestablishment of democracy, Aznar joined the People's Alliance (AP) in January 1979, a few months after his wife. In March he became the Secretary General of the party in La Rioja until 1980. In February 1981 he joined the AP's National executive committee. He became assistant Secretary General in February 1982, and then, on October 26, 1982 he was elected to the Parliament, representing Ávila. On June 22, 1985 he was elected to the presidency of the AP in Castile-Leon. On December 2, 1986 AP leader Manuel Fraga, resigned after fierce internal party fighting in the 5 months since their failure to dent the majority of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). Aznar was not considered senior enough to be a possible successor, and gave his support to the more right wing Miguel Herrero who lost to Fraga's choice Antonio Hernández Mancha, resulting in Aznar losing his assistant secretary general post. On June 10, 1987, having resigned his parliamentary seat, he was elected to the Cortes of Castile-León, where he was elected president of this Autonomous Region. Two years later, Aznar was voted by the National executive Committee to be the new leader of his party, re-founded as Partido Popular (People's Party, or PP). With Fraga focused on the presidency of Galicia, Aznar was confirmed as leader of the PP at their 10th National Congress at the end of March 1990. In November the PP moved from the Conservative group in the European Parliament to the more centrist and Christian Democratic European People's Party. On June 6, 1993 the PP again lost the general election, but improved on their previous performance with 34.8% of the vote, with PSOE losing its absolute majority and needing to form coalition government with other parties in order to continue ruling. The result was a disappointment as the polls had predicted a PP victory. They did well in the 1994 European and 1995 local elections.
On April 19, 1995, only his armoured car prevented him from being assassinated by an ETA bomb.



Prime Minister

After a hard fought campaign, focusing on some of the corruption scandals in Felipe González's Socialist government, Aznar won the March 3, 1996 general election with 37.6% of the vote, thus ending 13 years of PSOE rule. With 154 of the 350 seats (PSOE had 141) Aznar had to reach agreements with two nationalist parties: Convergence and Unity (Catalan) and Canary Islands Coalition, in order to govern including but not requiring Basque Nationalist Party. He was voted Prime Minister with 181 votes in the Cortes general on May 4 and sworn in next day by King Juan Carlos I. 



First term (
The Aznar government maintained the outgoing Socialists' commitment to joining the European Union's single currency and showed itself willing to take political risks in order to qualify for membership. In the summer it announced a decision to freeze the wages of civil servants in 1997 and stood by that decision throughout the fall, despite a series of union-led demonstrations that culminated in a march by tens of thousands of Spaniards throughout the nation on December 11.


The government, with the backing of regional parties, passed a strict 1997 budget on December 27, four days before time would have run out for a vote. The opposition Socialists and communist-led United Left coalition argued that the spending cuts and tax adjustments would hurt the disadvantaged and benefit the rich. The budget aimed to enable Spain to lower its deficit to within 3% of gross domestic product, a requirement for joining the EU's single currency.


The government was also forced to back down on a plan to reduce Spanish dependence on its own high-priced coal when hundreds of coal miners blocked highways and demonstrated in November. The miners persuaded the government to adjust a national electricity plan that would have phased out the subsidy of Spanish coal, which made it more expensive than imports.


Aznar also announced the sale early in 1997 of the nation's remaining minority stake in the Telefónica telecommunications company and the petroleum group Repsol. This marked the beginning of a period of privatizations after the previous PSOE government had nationalized parts of the economy.


After the PP's first year in office, the goodwill between it and the major nationalist parties in the legislature, the Catalan and the PNV, appeared to have lost strength. Both parties had enjoyed leverage over the previous PSOE government, and the PNV in particular stepped back from colluding too closely with the government.


Ecological issues came to the fore in Spain during 1998. A vigorous public debate created a new awareness of topics such as environmental pollution and deforestation, and a host of organizations competed to spread the ecological message. The government, conscious of the political implications of this new concern, was also party to the debate and promised active cooperation.


The economy suffered the effects of the global recession unleashed by the financial crisis in Asia, and the Ministry for the Economy reduced its estimate of economic growth for 1999 from 3.9% to 3.7%. The sharp decline of share prices on the Madrid and Barcelona stock exchanges (on average about 20%) created cause for concern among both business associations and trade unions. The latter voiced their concern at the risk of increased unemployment, which remained around 18%. Despite the slowdown, salaries increased an average of 2.3% that year.


As a reaction against attempts to liberalize the current abortion laws, Roman Catholic groups renewed their anti-abortion campaigns. 


In 1999 the euro was introduced; this was considered a major success for Aznar and his government. The PP could also point to a falling unemployment rate (though at 16% still the highest in the European Union) and a record of steady economic growth. Rather disappointingly, however, three years of smooth government and a favourable economic climate had not translated into PP success in the opinion polls. The government was damaged when the PSOE revealed at the end of the year that the ranks of top Spanish civil servants had increased 15% over the previous year despite PP promises to cut the bureaucracy.



Second term (2000-2004)

Mainly due to the success of its economic policies, Aznar was reelected with an unexpected outright majority, with 44.5% of the vote and 183 seats.


Spain was one of the fastest-growing economies in the European Union (EU) in 2001, despite inflation nearing 4% and the clear signs of slowdown. However, The government's problems involved politics as much as policies. A number of issues were handled clumsily, including implementation of immigration legislation passed in January and a health scare over low-quality olive oil in July. In the autumn complaints that the government was steamrolling controversial university reforms through the parliament inflamed the opposition. At the end of the year students all over the country joined in strikes, demonstrations, and sit-ins, often alongside their rectors and professors.


Though still outperforming most of its European Union (EU) partners, Spain failed to escape the global economic downturn in 2002. Falling exports, near 4% inflation, declining domestic consumption, and a sharp drop in tourist revenue helped bring annual gross domestic product growth down to an estimated 2%, the lowest level since 1996.


In addition, rising crime rates and soaring house prices (up almost 50% since 1998) were the object of widespread public concern, providing opposition parties with powerful ammunition against Aznar's government.


The centre-right majority government ran into even deeper trouble in its attempt to reform the unemployment benefit system. A controversial decree-law issued on May 27 introduced new restrictions on entitlement to benefits, made it harder for those receiving welfare to turn down jobs offered by the public employment agency, and phased out the special subsidy for agricultural workers in the south. The Trade unions reacted by calling a 24-hour general strike on June 20, embarrassing the government on the eve of the EU summit in Seville. The stoppage proved a largely unexpected success. On October 7, just two days after a major national demonstration in Madrid to protest the law, new Labour Minister Eduardo Zaplana announced an abrupt U-turn, accepting nearly all of the unions' demands and leaving only the reform of the subsidy for farm labourers on the statute book.


A major secondary-education bill also proved controversial. Intended to raise educational standards, the proposed Law of Quality lowered the age at which students were streamed into different educational tracks, allowed special schools in the state sector to select on merit, and introduced a new secondary-school-leaving exam. Opposition to the bill's allegedly socially divisive effects and inadequate funding for the public educational system brought student organizations, trade unions, and left-wing parties into the streets as the bill was being debated in the parliament in October.


Amid the stagnant European economies, estimated GDP growth of 2.3% made Spain the second fastest-growing economy in the European Union in 2003. Continued expansion enabled the Spanish government to proclaim proudly that it would end the year with a budget surplus for the first time in recent history. There was little cause for complacency, however; inflation was running at 2.7% (compared with the EU's 1.7%) in November, unemployment stood at more than 10%, almost one-third of the workforce had temporary contracts, and housing prices were spiraling. The European Commission shared analysts' concerns that a hike in interest rates or unemployment could send housing prices tumbling, with disastrous consequences for families that were burdened with unprecedented levels of debt and for the financial institutions that had given them loans.


After six years of relative political calm, when political debate was dominated by a consensus within the ruling party on economics, regional nationalism and terrorism, several issues arose which polarized the Spanish public:





He actively encouraged and supported George W. Bush's international policy and the US attack on Iraq in 2003. He publicly defended it on the basis of secret files which allegedly contained evidence of the Iraq government's threatening plans, even though the vast majority of the Spanish population was against the war (including some PP members). As a consequence of this and other political issues (such as the Prestige oil disaster), he appeared to lose some support from the people who had voted for the PP in 2000. 


In January 2004 Aznar called for new elections and designated his candidate, Mariano Rajoy, sticking to his pledge of not seeking office for a third term. Despite political tensions, polls suggested that the Popular Party was set to win a third election in a row.



The Madrid train bombings




Further information: 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings



Three days before the election an presumed Islamic terrorist group killed 191 people in the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings centred on the Atocha train station, later claiming that this was in response to the role played by Spain in the Iraq war. There is however strong evidence that Islamic groups had been plotting to attack Spain since long before any decision to support the Iraq invasion and removal of Saddam Hussein.


Based on evidence available and in accord with much of the press, the Aznar cabinet first blamed ETA, which had been caught trying to carry out an attack at Madrid's Chamartín train station the year before and two weeks before were detained carrying explosives likely the ones used in the bombing. As more evidence of Islamic involvement emerged two days after the Atocha bombings, demonstrations took place across Spain demanding news from the investigation, where chants such as "We want the truth before we vote" and "Who is responsible" were heard. Time after, many links came up involving police confidents which for the time has not been clarified.


Three days after the train bombings, the PSOE won the election, but were 12 seats short of an overall majority  and this forced it into a loose coalition government with regional nationalist and left-wing parties. PP representatives would continue to claim that there was a link between ETA and the March 11th bombing and the investigations held by a Parliamentary Committee were closed with no real results and the only opposition against closing it from the PP.



After 2004




José María Aznar, speaking at Georgetown University, September 21, 2004.

Enlarge

José María Aznar, speaking at Georgetown University, September 21, 2004.






After leaving office, he has presided over the FAES think tank, which is associated with the PP. After a 2005 reform, promoted by the current Prime Minister of Spain  Rodríguez Zapatero, admitted former prime ministers into the Spanish Council of State.


In addition, Aznar was appointed Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership at Georgetown University in Washington, DC in April 2004.  In this position, he teaches two seminars per semester on contemporary European politics and trans-Atlantic relationships in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.  Also, Aznar leads public dialogues on pressing contemporary concerns in collaboration with other members of the faculty.


Recently Aznar was appointed to the Board of Directors of News Corporation, the media conglomerate of Rupert Murdoch



Published  works



Reference



See also



External links





|- style="text-align: center;"



|- style="text-align: center;"



|- style="text-align: center;"

















































 





From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.














Search Titles









0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?










E-mail this article to:



Personal Message: