Catalonia elects Puigdemont as leader amid wider Madrid divisions

Tobias Buck in Madrid

The Catalan parliament voted in a new regional president on Sunday, as part of a last-minute deal that
is expected to accelerate the region’s push for independence and raise
the pressure on leaders in Madrid to end Spain’s post-election political
deadlock.

Carles Puigdemont will have an explicit mandate to lead Catalonia
towards secession from Spain over the next 18 months. His government
will have the job of, in effect, setting up a state within the state, by
creating a separate Catalan central bank, tax authority, social
security system and possibly even the nucleus of an independent
military.

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Artur Mas (left) shakes hands with Carles Puigdemont