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 (EAJ-PNV), Catalan (CiU) and Canarian (CC) regionalists.

He was finally invested prime minister on 4 May 1996, and his first term was marked by market liberalization, deregulation of the economy, cutting of state expenses and privatization of several state-owned companies.

During his first term, the economy grew and Spain met the criteria to participate in the creation of the eurozone, but unemployment remained moderately high.

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.

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.

After the death of Francisco Franco and the restoration of democracy, Aznar joined the Alianza Popular (AP) in January 1979, a few months after his wife.

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.

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.

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.

Like UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Aznar actively supported the United States' War on Terrorism, despite public opposition.

The government's handling of the wreckage of the Greek Prestige tanker near the Spanish coast, which resulted in a major ecological disaster, also became a divisive issue.

Spain's major cities were the scene of the largest street demonstrations ever seen in the country as a result of the government's participation in the invasion.

[17] 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.

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?"

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.

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.

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.

[31] Defunct 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".

In 2009 Aznar was due to speak to a Heartland Institute conference, which was billed as the "world's largest-ever gathering of global warming skeptics".

However, some People's Party politicians favored Aznar and wanted a public debate on climate change, most notably Esperanza Aguirre.

He said his report recommends that due to its Western culture and the benefits it brings the European Union, Israel should become a full member of the EU without pre-conditions.

"[41] During a Washington, D.C. conference at the Hudson Institute, a conservative U.S. think tank, on 23 September 2006, referring to Pope Benedict XVI's comments on Islam and violence, Aznar asked why Muslims had not apologized for occupying Spain for 800 years as Al-Andalus.

One PP official clarified Aznar's speech by saying the prime minister thought it is pointless to apologize for historical events.

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".

[44][45] 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.

This was allegedly used to receive anonymous donations from business leaders in order to pay "salary supplements" to party officials.

[citation needed] In December 2012, a French court ordered Desseigne to undergo a paternity test to see if he fathered Dati's child.