By ANTARA News/DPA
Madrid : Spanish Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, 47, was Friday reconfirmed by parliament as prime minister for a second term after winning the elections a month ago.
Zapatero was reconfirmed only with the votes of the 169 Socialist legislators in a second round of voting in the 350-member parliament, where he failed to win the absolute majority necessary for him to be elected in the first round on Wednesday.
One hundred and fifty-eight MPs voted against, while 23 abstained.
Zapatero was the first prime minister elected in a popular vote to be reconfirmed only in the second round since Spain became a democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
In a speech prior to the vote, Zapatero pledged to seek dialogue with the other parties in an attempt to improve the political atmosphere from the previous legislature, which was marked by the bitter relations between the government and the conservative opposition.