This week in history: March 1-7 28 February 2021 Aznar in June 1996, after being sworn in as prime minister On March 3, 1996, the right-wing Popular Party won a narrow victory in Spain’s national elections. It was only the second time in history that power passed from one party to another since the Spanish Civil War and the coming to power of the fascist dictator Francisco Franco. The election brought an end to more than 13 years of rule by Spain’s Socialist Party and its leader Felipe Gonzalez. Yet the Popular Party and its incoming prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, whose father and grandfather were prominent Franco supporters, won by a margin of just 1.4 percent of the vote, barely 340,000 out of the more than 25 million ballots cast.