Zapatero Faces Further Ballot - 11.04.2008

Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero must face a second ballot in Parliament to return for a second four-year term as Spanish prime minister, having failed Wednesday to secure the absolute majority required for a first-round confirmation.

Zapatero is certain to prevail in a second round of balloting set for Friday, when he will need to win only a plurality of votes in the 350-seat lower house.
The incumbent premier received 168 votes on Wednesday, while 158 lawmakers opposed him and 23 abstained.
All of the Socialists present supported their leader. The "no" votes came from the 154 legislators of the conservative main opposition Popular Party, three left-wing Catalan nationalists and Rosa Diez, the sole parliamentary representative of a Socialist splinter party.
The remaining minor parties, including mainstream Basque and Catalan nationalists, abstained.
Lower house speaker Jose Bono immediately announced that the second balloting would take place at midday Friday.
As he left the chamber, Zapatero told the swarm of reporters surrounding him that the first vote went "as expected."
Even so, Wednesday's ballot marked only the second time since the restoration of democracy in Spain that the leader of the party which won the general elections was not installed as prime minister by a majority in Parliament.
The voting followed a parliamentary debate in which Zapatero outlined his priorities for the next four years, which are based on two main pillars: easing the effects of the economic slowdown and efforts to reach multiparty agreements on "matters of state" such as foreign policy and Madrid's battle with the Basque terrorist group ETA.
Socialist parliamentary spokesman Jose Antonio Alonso said Wednesday that his party is prepared to govern in a spirit of "dialogue and with a special willingness to seek agreement on issues that affect the lives of citizens and matters of state."
In this context, he said the Socialists are pleased that the PP "has shown a certain receptiveness" to their proposals for multiparty accords.
Mariano Rajoy, whose leadership of the PP is a matter of controversy after losing two consecutive elections, on Wednesday reiterated his willingness to reach agreement, but also noted that - in the case of ETA terrorism - the "basic crux" of any accord must be a refusal to enter into negotiations with the Basque separatist group.
The PP has relentlessly criticized Zapatero for having had contacts with the terrorist group during the process started by the cease-fire ETA unilaterally declared in March 2006 in an apparent attempt to negotiate peace.
On June 5, 2007, ETA announced an end to its "permanent cease-fire." Most analysts and officials, however, regarded the Dec. 30, 2006, car-bomb attack at Madrid's Barajas Airport that killed two Ecuadorians as marking the end of ETA's cease-fire.
ETA, an acronym for the Basque language words for Homeland and Freedom, has killed more than 800 people since taking up arms in 1968 to seek a Basque nation comprising parts of northern Spain and southern France.