José María Aznar
Member of the Congress of Deputies | |
---|---|
In office 21 November 1989 – 15 January 2004 | |
Constituency | Madrid |
In office 18 November 1982 – 7 July 1987 | |
Constituency | Ávila |
Member of the Cortes of Castile and León | |
In office 10 June 1987 – 16 September 1989 | |
Constituency | Ávila |
Personal details | |
Born | José María Alfredo Aznar López 25 February 1953 Madrid, Spain |
Political party | People's Alliance (1979–1989) People's Party (1989–) |
Other political affiliations | Frente de Estudiantes Sindicalistas |
Spouse | |
Children | José María (b. 1978) Ana (b. 1981) Alonso (b. 1988) |
Alma mater | Complutense University of Madrid |
Signature | |
José María Alfredo Aznar López (Spanish pronunciation:
A member of the Frente de Estudiantes Sindicalistas, a dissident Falangist student organisation, in his youth, he studied law at the Complutense University of Madrid and first worked in the public sector as an Inspector of the Finances of the State (Spanish: Inspector de las Finanzas del Estado). He joined the People's Alliance, which was re-founded as the People's Party in 1989. He led the Junta of Castile and León from 1987 to 1989 and was Leader of the Opposition at the national level from 1989 to 1996. In 1995, he survived an assassination attempt from the Basque separatist group ETA.
The People's Party, led by Aznar, won the most parliamentary seats at the
Aznar also got the most votes in the 2000 general election this time obtaining an absolute majority of 183 deputies (out of 350) in the Congress. The economy kept growing and unemployment finally began to fall during his second term. In foreign policy, Spain adopted a neoconservative approach and grew closer ties with the United States and the Bush administration, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Aznar supported the American-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2002, he faced harsh criticisms for the government's response to the Prestige oil spill in Galicia. Support of the PP further declined after the invasion of Iraq, which was not supported by the majority of the Spanish population, but was nevertheless carried out with Spanish support for the U.S. and the UK. A 2003 poll conducted by the public research institute CIS found that 91% of Spaniards were against the invasion of Iraq.[1]
In 2004, a general election in Spain was scheduled for 14 March, which was not contested by Aznar, but by his successor as lead of the PP, Mariano Rajoy. On 11 March, the 2004 Madrid train bombings occurred, which killed 192 people. The government claimed the bombings were perpetrated by ETA. In the few days between the bombings and the election, the PP defended this position: however, a major sector of the population rejected the hypothesis that the attacks were perpetrated by ETA and believed the government was lying because of the bombings' possible connection to Spanish support for the invasion of Iraq. This led to a massive drop in support for the PP in the days before the election, and the opposing PSOE's José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero won the election.
Aznar remains active in the private sector, and he sometimes gives his views on current issues. He was a member of the
Early life
Aznar was born in
He was educated at the Colegio del Pilar in Madrid. As a sixteen-year-old, Aznar espoused an independent brand of Falangism as a member of the Frente de Estudiantes Sindicalistas (FES), a Falangist dissident student organization opposed to the Francoist regime.[3] Primordially a university organization, a teenage Aznar became responsible for the high-school branch set up in the late 1960s, and was tasked with promoting Falangism amongst Spain’s school-going youth along the organisation’s lines.[4][n. 1]
Aznar graduated in law at the Complutense University of Madrid in 1975 and became a Tax Authority inspector in 1976.
Politician in People's Alliance
After the death of
On 26 October 1982 he was elected to parliament, representing Ávila. On 22 June 1985 he was appointed to the presidency of the AP in Castile and León. On 2 December 1986 AP leader Manuel Fraga resigned following fierce internal party fighting in the aftermath of another failure to dislodge the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). Aznar was not considered senior enough to be a possible successor, and gave his support to Miguel Herrero de Miñón, who lost the leadership bid to Fraga's choice, Antonio Hernández Mancha. As a result, Aznar lost his post as Assistant Secretary General.
On 10 June 1987, after having resigned to his seat in the Congress of Deputies, he was elected member of the Cortes of Castile and León in the 1987 Castilian-Leonese regional election, representing Ávila. Soon after, he was invested as president of the region, forming an uneasy coalition government with the Democratic and Social Centre (CDS).
Leader of the Opposition
In 1989 Aznar was voted by the National Executive Committee of AP to be the new leader of the party, re-founded as the Partido Popular (
On 6 June 1993 the PP again lost the general election, but improved on their previous performance by obtaining 34.8% of the vote. The PSOE lost its absolute majority and needed to form a coalition government with other parties in order to continue governing. The result was a disappointment for the PP as the opinion polls had predicted a victory for them. They did well in the 1994 European and 1995 local elections.
On 19 April 1995, Aznar's armored car prevented him from being assassinated by an ETA bomb.[6]
The PP won the 3 March 1996
Premiership
First term (1996–2000)
The Aznar Government maintained the commitment of the previous government to join the
Second term (2000–2004)
Spanish voters reelected Aznar in the 2000 general election with an outright majority. The PP obtained 44.5% of the vote and 183 seats.[7] The Spanish electorate's participation was the lowest for a general election in Spain in the post-Franco era.[8]
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 Spanish public opinion. Like UK Prime Minister
He actively encouraged and supported the Bush administration's foreign policy and the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
On the economic front, the government pursued the
In January 2004 Aznar called a general election and designated his successor as candidate, Mariano Rajoy, sticking to a pledge of not seeking office for a third term. Despite political tensions, polls suggested that the People's Party was set to win a third consecutive election on the strength of the economy. An opinion poll carried out by the government-run CIS (which had estimated that 92% of the Spanish people did not support the War in Iraq) in February 2004 estimated that the PP would win an election with 42.2% of the vote while the PSOE would only get 35.5%.[14]
Madrid train bombings and end of term
Three days before the 2004 general election, 10 bombs killed 191 people in the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings. Initially, the government and the opposition[15][16] stated publicly that it was possible the bombings may have been the work of ETA. However, the PP government continued to blame ETA even after evidence that the attacks may have been the work of an Islamist group emerged, having the minister of foreign affairs, Ana Palacio, instruct all Spanish diplomats to place the blame on ETA at every opportunity.[17][18] The public perception that the government hid information from the general population gave rise to a public outcry. 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.[19][20] Three days after the train bombings, the opposition PSOE won the elections. The subsequent investigations held by a Parliamentary Committee were characterized by bitter partisan exchanges between the different political parties, with dispute over who may have been responsible for the bombings. Aznar appeared before the Committee in November 2004 and declared his belief that the authors of the bombings were not to be found "in faraway deserts or remote mountains."[21] Aznar said in 2006 that he thought that the attacks were not exclusively perpetrated by Islamists.
After 2004
After leaving office on 17 April 2004 he presided over the FAES think tank, which is associated with the PP. After a 2005 reform, promoted by Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero, former prime ministers were admitted into the Council of State, a position from which he later resigned.
Aznar was appointed Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership at
In 2007, Aznar was appointed to the advisory board of Centaurus Capital, a London-based
Aznar is a member of the
Aznar was also one of the signatories and promoters of the Prague Charter.[25]
Aznar was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from CEU Cardinal Herrera University.
Since 2013, Aznar has served on the Leadership Council for Concordia, a nonpartisan, nonprofit based in New York City focused on promoting effective public-private collaboration to create a more prosperous and sustainable future, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Afiniti, a US based artificial intelligence business.[26]
He received the America Award of the
In 2022, his cumulative salary since he began advising Rupert Murdoch in 2006 exceeded $4 million.[27]
Political positions
Environmental issues
In October 2008, on the occasion of a visit by the Czech President Václav Klaus to the Spanish capital, Aznar said that anthropogenic climate change is a "scientifically questionable" theory which had become a religion, and whose followers were "enemies of freedom".[28] These views were similar to those expressed by Klaus in his book Blue Planet in Green Shackles, which was published in Spanish by FAES.[29] Aznar's speech caused some puzzlement, as his government had been a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol in 1998, and it appeared that he had subsequently changed his mind about climate change. In 2009 Aznar was due to speak to a
In 2010 it was reported that Aznar would chair the Advisory Council of the Global Adaptation Institute, a new body concerned with
Foreign policy
Israel
In 2010, Aznar founded the
He criticized Turkey for placing Israel "in an impossible situation" in which it would have to either give up its security or face world condemnation. Aznar concluded that Israel is the West's first line of defense, and must be protected.[33] In 2014, in an address at the
Controversy
Aznar's government posthumously granted a medal of Civil Merit to
After the 2004 elections it was revealed that Aznar and his government secretly channeled public funds to a United States legal firm to lobby for the bestowment of the Congressional Gold Medal on Aznar. The contract consisted in a first payment of US$700,000 for the first seven months, followed by $100,000 monthly payments until it reached the sum of $2 million.[36]
In an interview with BBC World on 27 July 2006 he voiced doubts about
During a Washington, D.C. conference at the
The American magazine Foreign Policy ranks him among the "five worst ex-presidents of the world" for his post-presidency behavior. According to the magazine, Aznar distinguished himself by his "extreme rhetoric" for his negationist positions on the issue of global warming, his rejection of the efforts of inter-religious dialogue or for having declared that the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States would lead to a "foreseeable economic disaster".[40][41]
Accusations of corruption
In 2015, after a series of cases spread over several years, 11 of the 14 members of José María Aznar's government from 2002 to 2003 were imprisoned or prosecuted for influence peddling, money laundering and tax fraud. Aznar himself is suspected by the Spanish justice system of having benefited from a party slush fund between 1990 and 1996 for an amount of 782,695 euros.[42]
He was summoned by the courts in March 2021 to explain the 'B fund' that the PP had allegedly maintained for more than twenty years. This was allegedly used to receive anonymous donations from business leaders in order to pay "salary supplements" to party officials.[43]
Personal life
In 1977 Aznar married Ana Botella, by whom he has three children: José María, Ana and Alonso. Their daughter married Alejandro Agag at El Escorial on 5 September 2002, and they have four children.[44]
In 2008 in response to rumours, Aznar denied being the father of Zohra Dati, daughter of Rachida Dati, the then French minister for justice.[45] The mother subsequently claimed that another individual, Dominique Desseigne, was the father of her child.
In December 2012, a French court ordered Desseigne to undergo a paternity test to see if he fathered Dati's child. A French court decision of 7 January 2016 ruled that Desseigne was indeed the father.
Ancestry
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Books
- Libertad y solidaridad (1991)
- La España en que yo creo (1995)
- España: la segunda transición (1995)
- Ocho años de Gobierno (2004)
- Retratos y perfiles: de Fraga a Bush (2005)
- Cartas a un joven español (2007)
- España puede salir de la crisis (2009)
- Memorias I (2012)
Conferences
- Latin America: An Agenda of Liberty, conference by José María Aznar at Francisco Marroquin University. Guatemala, November 2007"Conference by José María Aznar" (Language: Spanish)
Awards and honors
- Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (19 April 2004).[46]
- Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry (23 August 1996).[47]
- Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2003)[48]
- Honorary Doctorate, Florida International University (1998).[49]
- Honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Sacred Heart of Milan (18 January 2007).
- Honorary Doctorate by the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (2 October 2008).
- Honorary Doctorate, University of Santiago de Chile (5 October 2008).
- Honorary Doctorate by the Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala (11 November 2008).
- Honorary Doctorate by the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola in Lima (21 March 2009).
- Honorary Doctorate, Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera(20 January 2009).
- Honorary Doctorate from the Catholic University San Antonio (11 November 2010).
- Gold Medal of Madrid (May 2011).[50]
- Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Americas Ecuador (11 October 2011).
Notes
- ^ After 1977 the FES would become the Falange Española Independiente (FEI).[5]
References
- ^ "Cerca del 91% de los españoles es contrario a la intervención en Irak" (in Spanish). El Mundo. 27 March 2003. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
- ^ "Biography at Spanish congress site".
- ISBN 978-84-9911-216-9.
- ISSN 1130-0124.
- ^ "A letter written by Jose María Aznar in 1969 to the editor of a falangist journal" (PDF). 1969. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ Azner, Jose; Fact Monster.
- ^ "Elections to the Spanish Congress of Deputies – Results Lookup". Election Resources on the Internet. 2000. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ "Elections to the Spanish Congress of Deputies". Election Resources on the Internet. 2004. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ David Pujante and Esperanza Morales-López, "A political action against popular opinion: Aznar's final speech before the Spanish Parliament justifying the war in Iraq (December 2003)." Journal of Language and Politics 7.1 (2008): 71-98 online[dead link].
- ^ "Full text of letter written by eight European leaders". The Irish Times. 30 January 2003.
- weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the Iraq War, but that when he believed there were WMDs and no one could disprove their existence."Aznar sabe "ahora" que no había armas de destrucción masiva en Irak". 20 Minutos. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ "Aznar takes advantage of an act in Madrid with PP loyals to rectify his 2003 accusations about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq". European Social Survey. Archived from the original on 14 November 2007. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ Crecimiento económico, regresión social, crispación política, José Vidal-Beneyto, april 2004
- ^ David Pujante and Esperanza Morales-López, "A political action against popular opinion: Aznar's final speech before the Spanish Parliament justifying the war in Iraq (December 2003)." Journal of Language and Politics 7.1 (2008): 71-98 online[dead link].
- ^ "BBC: Scores die in Madrid bomb carnage". BBC News. 11 March 2004. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- Pais Vasco: "When ETA attacks, the Basque heart breaks into a thousand pieces."
- ^ "Exteriores pidió a todas las embajadas que defendieran la authoría de ETA". Cadena Ser. 2004. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ "Palacio ordenó a embajadores decir que ETA cometió los atentados". Barcelona Independent Media Center. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ "Miles de personas exigen en las calles españolas que se les diga la verdad antes de votar". El Pais. 2004. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ Tarín Sanz, Adrián, and José Manuel Rivas Otero. "Leadership Styles and War and Peace Policies in the Spanish–Basque Conflict: A Discourse Analysis of José María Aznar and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero." Social Sciences 7.4 (2018): 68.
- ^ Paloma D. Sotero and Elena Mengual (2004). "Aznar ataca al Gobierno y pide que se 'investigue la verdad' del 11-M". El Mundo. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ James Mackintosh (2007). "Centaurus hires high-profile advisers". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 15 January 2008. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ Dan Milmo (22 June 2006). "Former Spanish PM to join Murdoch board". London: Guardian Business. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ Club de Madrid is an independent non-profit organization created to promote "Democracy that Delivers". It is composed of more than 100 Members, all democratic former presidents and prime ministers from around the world.
- ^ "Support the Prague Charter". The Jerusalem Post. 11 June 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
- ^ "AI Firm Afiniti Said to Weigh IPO at About $2 Billion Value". Bloomberg.com. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
- ^ Vélez, Antonio M. (11 January 2023). "Aznar recibe un sueldo récord de Murdoch y ha cobrado ya cerca de 4 millones como asesor del magnate". elDiario.es (in Spanish).
- ^ "Aznar questions global warming". 23 October 2008.
- ^ The book was originally published in 2007 in Czech (Modrá, nikoli zelená planeta): the Spanish title is Planeta azul (no verde) Archived 8 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Manuel Ansede (3 March 2009) "Aznar borra cumbre negacionista" Archived 6 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Público
- ^ La presidenta respalda a Aznar sobre el cambio climático El País
- ^ "Former Spanish President..." (Press release). Global Adaptation Institute. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
- ^ "Ex-Spain PM: If Israel goes down, we all go down". Ynet. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
- ^ "Former Spanish PM Aznar: Israel Needed by European Union, Should be Accepted as Member State". 7 February 2014.
- ^ "No deben tolerarse las recompensas a torturadores (They should not tolerate rewards to torturers)". Amnesty International. 30 January 2001. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
- ^ SER, Cadena (22 July 2004). "Aznar pagó con dinero público a un "lobby" de Washington para conseguir la medalla del Congreso de EEUU". Archived from the original on 25 November 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2007.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Entrevista BBC Aznar, 24-07-2006 (Parte II de 3)". BBC World via YouTube. 2006. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ "Aznar: "Muslims should apologize for occupying Spain for 800 years"". YouTube. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ "Aznar se pregunta por qué los musulmanes no se disculpan 'por haber ocupado España ocho siglos'". El Mundo. Retrieved 3 January 2008.
- ^ "Foreign Policy coloca a Aznar entre los cinco peores ex presidentes del mundo". 5 October 2010.
- ^ "Bad Exes".
- ^ "De vergüenza: 11 de los 14 ministros de Aznar están imputados, cobraron sobresueldos o duermen en prisión". El Plural (in Spanish). 17 April 2015.
- ^ "Former Spanish PMs Rajoy and Aznar testify in corruption case". nationalpost. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
- ^ "José María Aznar, * 1953 - Geneall.net". geneall.net.
- ^ (Return of 'Supermum' Rachida Dati, starts maternity leave row, Times Online Retrieved on 9 January 2009
- Moratinos Cuyaubé, Miguel Ángel (ed.). "REAL DECRETO 740/2004, de 19 de abril, por el que se concede el Collar de la Orden de Isabel la Católica a don José María Aznar López" (PDF). Boletín Oficial del Estado(96). Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación: 16144. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
- ^ "CIDADÃOS ESTRANGEIROS AGRACIADOS COM ORDENS PORTUGUESAS - Página Oficial das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas". ordens.presidencia.pt.
- ^ "Order Zasługi Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej". President of Poland. Archived from the original on 9 August 2022.
- ^ "Florida International University Magazine Fall 1998".
- ^ Martín, María (16 May 2011). "Los ex presidentes González y Aznar reciben la Medalla de Oro del Ayuntamiento de Madrid". El Mundo.
Further reading
- Aznar, José María. Eight Years as Prime Minister: A Personal Vision of Spain 1996-2004 (Barcelona: Planeta, 2005).
- Jones, Nathan. "The importance of the pre September 11 period in explaining Aznar and Blair’s adoption of a pro-US foreign policy." International Journal of Iberian Studies 30.1 (2017): 3-19. online
- Lorda, Clara Ubaldina, and Elisabeth Miche. "Two institutional interviews: José María Aznar and Jacques Chirac on the Iraq conflict." Discourse & Society 17.4 (2006): 447-472 online.
- Tarín Sanz, Adrián, and José Manuel Rivas Otero. "Leadership Styles and War and Peace Policies in the Spanish–Basque Conflict: A Discourse Analysis of José María Aznar and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero." Social Sciences 7.4 (2018): 68+ online
- Van Dijk, T.A. "War Rhetoric of a Little Ally. Political Implicatures and Aznar’s Legitimization of the War in Iraq" Journal of Language and Politics (2005) 4(1): 65–91.
- Woodworth, Paddy. "Spain changes course: Aznar's legacy, Zapatero's prospects." World Policy Journal 21.2 (2004): 7-26.
External links
- (in Spanish) Partido Popular
- (in Spanish) Fundacion para el Analisis y los Estudios Sociales (Spanish Think Tank related to the PP) Archived 27 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- (in Spanish) Biography and tenure by CIDOB
- Appearances on C-SPAN