{"id":822,"date":"2026-05-06T17:44:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bs.xl.pt\/the-lisbon-conference\/attendants\/jose-maria-aznar\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T15:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:38:10","slug":"jose-maria-aznar","status":"publish","type":"attendants","link":"https:\/\/bs.xl.pt\/the-lisbon-conference\/attendants\/jose-maria-aznar\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Jose Maria Aznar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Born in Madrid in 1953.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>He holds a degree in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid and has been a lawyer and State Finance Inspector since 1975.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n

He is Executive President of the FAES Foundation and President of the Atlantic Institute of Government (IADG).<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of News Corp, Special Advisor to Latham & Watkins, and a member of the International Advisory Board of Barrick Gold Corporation and of the Atlantic Council (United States).<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\n\n

He served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1996, following the electoral victory of the Popular Party. After a further victory in 2000, this time with an absolute majority, he was re-elected and remained in office until the 2004 elections, in which he voluntarily chose not to stand. \n \nHe is also a member of the International Advisory Council of San Ignacio de Loyola University, the Leadership Council of Concordia, and the Board of Trustees of the Elcano Royal Institute.<\/p>\n\n

During his tenure, he led a significant programme of economic and social reforms. The defence of the Constitution and the democratic Transition, the fight against terrorism, Spain\u2019s integration into the European Union, the transatlantic relationship, and a commitment to freedoms were the cornerstones of his political action. <\/p>\n\n

He began his political career in 1979. He was President of the Autonomous Community of Castile and Le\u00f3n from 1987 to 1989. In 1989, he was chosen as a candidate for Prime Minister and, the following year, became leader of the Popular Party, which he led from 1990 to 2004. He served as Leader of the Opposition from 1989 to 1996. <\/p>\n\n

From 2004 to 2011, he was a Distinguished Scholar at Georgetown University, and from 2011 to 2015 a Distinguished Fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. <\/p>\n\n

He is the author of eleven books and has received honorary doctorates from thirteen universities, including Florida International University (1998) and Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He is married to Ana Botella; they have three children and eight grandchildren. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":876,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"attendant_categories":[],"class_list":["post-822","attendants","type-attendants","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bs.xl.pt\/the-lisbon-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attendants\/822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bs.xl.pt\/the-lisbon-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attendants"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bs.xl.pt\/the-lisbon-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/attendants"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bs.xl.pt\/the-lisbon-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bs.xl.pt\/the-lisbon-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bs.xl.pt\/the-lisbon-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bs.xl.pt\/the-lisbon-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822"},{"taxonomy":"attendant_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bs.xl.pt\/the-lisbon-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attendant_categories?post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}