Aznar's return: the PP-Vox coalition dream in Spain

Aznar as prime minister again? The old guard that won't retire

The idea of José María Aznar returning as Spain's prime minister is once again circulating among the most nostalgic circles of the right. At 73, the former prime minister would be the missing piece to recreate the cabinet of his first term (1996-2000), the one that recruited figures from outside the PP such as Loyola de Palacio, Abel Matutes or Josep Piqué. The plan: a coalition with Vox in which Abascal's party gives ground and Aznar steers the PP back to the good old ways.

The economic case for the comeback

Supporters of the plan argue that Aznar would guarantee legal certainty, curb immigration, revive construction and attract foreign capital. They add a defence chapter: more military spending because "Segarro is still there". It is nostalgia for the property boom and full employment years, when ministers came not from primaries but from the market.

The sceptics and cross-party nostalgia

The pushback is swift. Some tell him to head to the local swimming pool, others joke about seeing him as a PSOE candidate. In between comes a confession that surprises even those who make it: they miss Felipe González. The young generation of politicians, from Sánchez to Ayuso, including Iglesias, Montero, Casado or Rivera, is dismissed as "a bluff". What's coming, they say, is worse.

The debate remains wishful thinking. There is no parliamentary arithmetic, no investiture plan and no date for primaries. Only the recognition that Spanish politics today, with its mediocrity, is feeding a mythology of the past that neither of the two Spains seems willing to bury.