A power struggle within the party eventually culminated in the seizure of power by a military faction led by Hafez al-Assad, who became the President of Syria. Assad oversaw the transformation of Syria into an authoritarian one-party state, gave more space to private property, organized state services along sectarian lines and created a cult of personality around himself. When Hafez al-Assad died in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad succeeded him as president. The new political climate gave way to the Damascus Spring, which called for a number of reforms including an end to the state of emergency that had been imposed since 1963. However, this movement was suppressed by the government, which intensified authoritarian rule in the country and introduced a number of neoliberal market reforms.