population growth with the construction of the railway line from Madrid to the French border at Irunand an important junction near the city. In 1936, at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the city quickly became part of the area occupied by rebel troops. Growth continued slowly again under Franco, but Ávila has not had a major influence in Spanish society in recent history, apart from the nurturing of politicians such as Adolfo Suárez, the first democratically-elected prime minister Spanish post-Franco, and José María Aznar, prime minister from 1996 to 2004, who represented Ávila in the Cortes but was not from the town
