José María Aznar
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| José María Aznar | |
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| In office May 5, 1996 – April 17, 2004 |
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| Vice President(s) | Mariano Rajoy |
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| Preceded by | Felipe González |
| Succeeded by | José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero |
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| Born | February 25, 1953 Madrid, Spain |
| Political party | Partido Popular |
| Spouse | Ana Botella |
José María Alfredo Aznar López (born in Madrid on February 25, 1953) is a Spanish politician who served as Spanish prime minister from 1996 to 2004.[1] [2]
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[edit] Beginnings
José María Aznar is the son of Manuel Aznar Acedo, a journalist and radio broadcaster, and grandson of Manuel Aznar Zubigaray, a prominent journalist during the Franco era, and descendant from the Counts of Aznar, an ancient nobiliary family in northern Spain which played a major role during the reconquista. He studied law at the Complutense University, graduating in 1975, becoming a Spanish Tax Authority inspector in 1976. In 1977 he married Ana Botella.
[edit] 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.[3] 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 and 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.
[edit] Prime Minister
After 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 156 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.
[edit] First term (1996-2000)
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 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 (golden shares) in the Telefónica telecommunications company and the petroleum group Repsol. These golden shares in Telefonica and Repsol YPF, as well as in Endesa, Argentaria and Tabacalera, all presided over by people close to Aznar, have since been declared illegal by the European Union. 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 Economic Ministry reduced its 1999 economic growth estimate from 3.9% to 3.7%. The sharp decline in 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 by 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.
[edit] Second term (2000-2004)
Perhaps, due to the success of its economic policies and to the fact that an important amount of electors tried to take away the Catalan Nationalist CiU influence over the government of Spain, Aznar was reelected with an outright majority, with 44.5% of the vote and 183 seats.[citation needed] It should be noticed that the participation was the lowest ever for a general election in Spain.
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 20th June, 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 relatively 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:
- the 2003 invasion of Iraq: He proactively supported US President George W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair on War on Terrorism.
- the government handling of the wreckage of the Greek Prestige tanker near the Spanish shore, which resulted in a major ecological disaster.
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 majority of the Spanish population were against the war (including some PP members). Spain's major cities were the scene of the largest street demonstrations ever seen in a country much given to such protests as a result of the government sending troops to Iraq. As a consequence of this and other political issues (such as the Prestige oil disaster, mentioned above), he appeared to lose some support from the people who had voted for the PP in 2000. In February the CIS (which had estimated that 92% of the Spanish people did not support the War in Iraq) estimated that the PP would win by 42.2% while the PSOE would only get 35.5%.[citation needed]
In January 2004 Aznar called a general election 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 consecutive election.
[edit] The Madrid train bombings
- Further information: 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings
Three days before elections were to be held, 10 bombs killed 191 people in the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings.
Perpetrators had alleged links to al-Qaeda [4] [5] [6], proved inconclusive after a two year investigation [7] However, the Spanish Judiciary, in a 1400+ report, does believe al-Qaeda was involved in some degree in the attack. [8]
The group later claimed the bombings were in response to the role played by Spain in the Iraq 2003 war and Afghanistan 2001 war [9].
Nevertheless:
- The New Yorker claimed that the decision may have begun before 9-11[10].
- According to an Italian police report, preparations started two and a half years (circa september 2001) before the attacks [11]
- El País (4 January, 2007) reported that new attacks were being prepared in Spain by alleged perpetrators of the 2004 Madrid train bombings[12]
Initially, the government and the opposition [13] stated publicly that it was possible the bombings may have been the work of ETA. The PP government continued to place the blame on ETA even after evidence that the attacks may had been the work of an Islamist group emerged, even going so far as having the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ana Palacio instruct all Spanish diplomats to place the blame on ETA at every opportunity[7][8]. Due to the public perception that the government was hiding facts from the general population, there was a large public outcry. Two days after the Atocha bombings, demonstrations of crowds 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[14].
Three days after the train bombings, the opposing socialist party PSOE won the elections. The investigations held by a Parliamentary Committee were characterised by bitter partisan exchanges between the various political parties, with great disputes over who may have been responsible for the bombings. However, the unanimous view of the security services as well as of all political parties except the PP is that ETA was not involved in the attacks.
Despite this, Aznar said in 2006 that he thought that the attacks were not exclusively perpetrated by Islamists (see below).
[edit] After 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, former prime ministers were admitted into the Spanish Council of State, a position from which he later resigned.
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.[15]
He has long been an advocate of widening NATO membership to include Japan and Israel. [9]
In an interview on BBC World, on the 27 July 2006, he suggested that if Israel were attacked by Hizbullah other NATO countries might come to their defense under Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty. Aznar also voiced in this interview his doubts about "Islamists" being the sole culprits of the disputed 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings.[16]
[edit] Controversy
Melitón Manzanas was granted posthumously a medal of Civil Merit by Aznar thirty years after he was murdered, and thus he was recognized as a victim of terrorism. This was extremely controversial, since Manzanas was a secret policeman serving wholeheartedly under Franco's government, and leftists and some separatists claim he had committed numerous crimes against human rights, although there is no evidence to support this claim.[citation needed]
After the 2004 elections, it was revealed that Aznar and his government secretly channelled public funds to a US legal firm to lobby for the bestowment of the Congressional Gold Medal on Aznar. The contract consisted in a first payment of $700000 USD for the first seven months, followed by $100000 monthly payments until it reached the sum of $2 million.[17]
During a conference in the Hudson Institute, a conservative U.S. think tank, the 23 September 2006 in Washington DC, while refering to Pope Benedict XVI's recent remarks on Islam and violence, Aznar asked himself why the muslims had never apologized for occupying Spain for 800 years, in reference to the Al-Andalus period. Following these remarks, he described the Alliance of Civilizations initiative as "stupid".[18][19].
[edit] Published works
- "Libertad y solidaridad" (1991)
- "La España en que yo creo" (1995)
- "España: la segunda transición" (1995)
- "Ocho años de Gobierno. Una visión muy personal de España" (2004)
- "Retratos y perfiles: de Fraga a Bush" (2005)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Extended biography at Fundació CIDOB (in Spanish)
- ^ MONTALBÁN, M.V. La Aznaridad,4th ed. Mondadori (2003)
- ^ A letter writen by Jose María Aznar in 1969 to the editor of a falangist journal
- ^ Madrid Train Attacks: In Depth (BBC News).
- ^ Masacre en Madrid (El Mundo).
- ^ 11M La matanza del 11M (El País).
- ^ The Independent article:While the bombers may have been inspired by Bin Laden, a two-year investigation into the attacks has found no evidence that al-Qa'ida helped plan, finance or carry out the bombings, or even knew about them in advance.
- ^ (El Mundo)
- ^ [1] The alleged bombing mastermind, Serhane ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, known as "the Tunisian", is said to be the man seen warning Spain to get its troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. "Should you not do this within the space of a week, starting today, we will continue our jihad (holy war) until martyrdom," the statement added.
- ^ [2] One of the most sobering pieces of information to come out of the investigation of the March 11th bombings is that the planning for the attacks may have begun nearly a year before 9/11
- ^ Madrid: The Prime Suspect (CBC) "There is something that I won't hide from you. The Madrid attack was my project and those who died as martyrs (at Leganes), they are my very dear friends. This project took me a lot of studying and a lot of patience, it took me two and a half years."
- ^ El argelino huido tras perpetrar el 11-M preparaba nuevos atentados en España
- ^ BBC: Scores die in Madrid bomb carnage Juan José Ibarretxe Markuartu, head of government in the Basque Country: "When ETA attacks, the Basque heart breaks into a thousand pieces".
- ^ http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Miles/personas/exigen/calles/espanolas/les/diga/verdad/votar/elpepiesp/20040314elpepinac_7/Tes Miles de personas exigen en las calles españolas que se les diga la verdad antes de votar (EL PAIS)
- ^ Former Spanish PM to join Murdoch board (Guardian Bussiness).
- ^ [3] "You know in this moment some perpetrators of the attacks, but you do not know who imagined the attack, who is the leader of the attack who is the idea (sic) of the attack, who established and supported means for the attacks, who defined the logistics of the attacks, who established the strategies of the attack. Nothing...I think that one part of the perpetrators are islamists, but I think that not only is an islamist attack
- ^ Aznar pagó con dinero público a un "lobby" de Washington para conseguir la medalla del Congreso de EEUU (Cadena SER)
- ^ Aznar:“Muslims should apologize for occupying Spain for 800 years” (EiTB24)
- ^ Aznar se pregunta por qué los musulmanes no se disculpan 'por haber ocupado España ocho siglos' (El Mundo)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- (Spanish) Partido Popular
- (Spanish) Fundacion para el Analisis y los Estudios Sociales (Spanish Think Tank related to the PP)
- (Spanish) Extended bio by CIDOB Foundation
- Fall of the Berlin Wall Anniversary, New Media, Francisco Marroquín University
- (Spanish) Doctorado Honorífico durante el Acto de Graduación; New Media, Francisco Marroquín University
- (Spanish) Interview with José Maria Aznar; New Media, Francisco Marroquín University
| Preceded by Felipe González |
Prime Minister of Spain 1996–2004 |
Succeeded by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero |
| Preceded by Manuel Fraga |
Chairman of the Popular Party 1990–2004 |
Succeeded by Mariano Rajoy |
| Preceded by Jose Constantino Nalda |
President of Castile-Leon 1987–1989 |
Succeeded by Jesús María Posada |
| Prime Ministers of Spain since 1931 |
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 Second Republic: Niceto Alcalá-Zamora • Manuel Azaña • Alejandro Lerroux • Diego Martínez Barrio • Alejandro Lerroux • Ricardo Samper • Alejandro Lerroux • Joaquín Chapaprieta • Manuel Portela Valladares • Manuel Azaña • Augusto Barcía Trelles • Santiago Casares Quiroga • Diego Martínez Barrio • José Giral • Francisco Largo Caballero • Juan Negrín
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Categories: NPOV disputes | Articles lacking sources from December 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | 1953 births | Roman Catholic politicians | Prime Ministers of Spain | Georgetown University faculty | Living people | Castile and León people
