III.

Aznar’s Second Term

The start of his second term was marked by a further wave of ETA violence. Aznar backed his policy of force, which was also supported by all the main political parties, in a December agreement. The mooring of a crippled British nuclear submarine, HMS Tireless, in Gibraltar from May caused outrage, and despite Aznar’s requests that the submarine be towed back to Britain it was repaired on the island. With the failure of unions and employers to come to an agreement on labour law reform, Aznar passed legislation to liberalize employment practice in March 2001, despite protests from both sides. In August 2002 he oversaw the banning of the Basque political party Batasuna, widely perceived as being the political wing of ETA. In the face of widespread hostility in the country he allied Spain with the United States in its efforts to disarm the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, in part justifying his position by presenting the conflicts with Hussein and ETA as part of a common struggle against terrorism (see War on Iraq). Local election results in May 2003, in which the Popular Party held its ground against the Socialist opposition, indicated that Aznar had weathered the controversy over Iraq. Nevertheless, he confirmed that he would not contest a third general election, and in August nominated his deputy, Mariano Rajoy, as his successor for the Popular Party leadership.

Aznar’s tenure as prime minister came to a dramatic end in March 2004. Days before the general election that had been expected to sweep Aznar’s designated successor into office, terrorist attacks in Madrid killed around 200 people. Aznar and other government leaders were quick to blame ETA. When it became clear that the culprits were more likely to have been Islamist extremists, the Popular Party was accused of exploiting the atrocity for electoral expediency. It was swept out of office, and the Socialist José Luis Rodriguéz Zapatero became Spain’s new prime minister.