page_title: José María Aznar
section_title: After 2004
hierarchical_section_title: José María Aznar / After 2004
caption_attribution_description: El ex-Presidente del Gobierno español, José María Aznar, presentó su libro "Cómo salir de la crisis" en el centro comercial El Corte Inglés el martes 14 de julio de 2009, en Vigo (Galicia, España). The ex-president of the Spanish Government, Jose Maria Aznar, presented his book "How went out of the crisis" in the commercial center El Corte Inglés on Tuesday, the 14th of July, 2009, in Vigo (Galicia, Spain).
context_page_description: José María Alfredo Aznar López is a Spanish politician who served as the Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party, the dominant right-of-centre party in the country at the time.
  A member of the Frente de Estudiantes Sindicalistas, a student organization in which a 16-years-old Aznar espoused an independent brand of Falangism, he obtained a law degree from the Complutense University of Madrid and his first job was in the public sector, specifically, as an Inspector of the Finances of the State. He joined the Popular 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 1996 general election, but he failed to obtain a majority in the Congress of Deputies, which forced the PP to seek the support of Basque, Catalan and Canarian regionalists.
context_section_description: 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 Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. 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. Additionally, he teaches a course on political leadership, convened by Professor Carol Lancaster, with former Polish President Kwasniewski. Aznar leads public dialogues on pressing contemporary concerns in collaboration with other members of the faculty; he was awarded an honorary degree at Universidad Francisco Marroquin.
  In 2007, Aznar was appointed to the advisory board of Centaurus Capital, a London-based hedge fund, an appointment which proved to be short-lived. In 2006, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of News Corporation, the media conglomerate of Rupert Murdoch. He is also member of the European Advisory Panel of The European Business Awards and the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation.
  Aznar is a member of the Club de Madrid, an independent non-profit organization created to promote democracy and change in the international community, composed by more than 100 members: former democratic Heads of State and Government from around the world.
  Aznar was also one of the signatories and promoters of the Prague Charter.
  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.
  He received the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2019.
caption: Aznar signing copies of his book in Vigo in 2009
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