in the list of the political alliance between Schwartz's Liberal Union, the People's Alliance and the People's Democratic Party. She was elected as became a municipal councillor. While in opposition, she was a member of the Standing Committee of the Madrid City Council, a CP spokeswoman on the areas of Culture, Education, Youth and Sports Affairs, and the Moncloa-Aravaca district. When the Liberal Union merged with the Liberal Party in December 1984, she held different positions in the National Executive and the Political Council of José Antonio Segurado's Liberal Party. In 1987 she left the Liberal Party and joined Popular Alliance, which later, in 1989, was refounded as the People's Party (PP). She was subsequently re-elected to the city council and continued in opposition until 1989, when a successful vote of no confidence ousted the PSOE mayor Juan Barranco, which allowed the PP and Democratic and Social Centre (CDS) to govern Madrid for the first time since the restoration of competitive municipal elections in 1979, under the Mayorship of Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún (CDS). In the new local executive, she was designated head of the Department of the Environment. The PP won a council majority in the 1991 election and José María Álvarez del Manzano was subsequently invested as new mayor, with Aguirre remaining in the municipal government board. Two years later, in 1993, in the reshuffle that followed the fall from grace of firebrand councillor Ángel Matanzo, she assumed additional competences becoming Councillor of Environment, Education, Culture and Sports. In June 1995, after the May election, she became the municipal spokeswoman of the PP and first deputy mayor. Soon after, she was also appointed by the City Council to the Caja Madrid Board of Governors. Minister of Education, Culture and Sports In the general election of 1996 she was the candidate for the Senate for Madrid of the People's Party, after her designation as a member of the National Executive Committee of the Party; and she became a senator. The then new President, José María Aznar, appointed her to be Minister of Education, Culture and Sports. She was succeeded in those posts in 1999 by Mariano Rajoy. President of the Senate Aguirre, a Senator since 1996, was elected President of the Senate in February 1999, the first woman to do so. In March 2000, she was re-elected Senator for Madrid, becoming the top-voted candidate in Spain with 1.55 million votes