A snap election has been triggered in Catalonia after the far-left CUP said it would not back Artur Mas for another term as regional president.

Parties favouring a split between Spain and Catalonia won a majority of seats in a regional election in September. However, divisions between the groups undermined their prospects of pushing forward with an independance drive.

Pro-independence parties struck a tentative deal before Christmas to form a government.

But the agreement faltered when the Catalan anti-capitalist party CUP, the minority partner in the pro-independence coalition, failed to reach a decision on its partner’s candidate to lead the regional government, Artur Mas, who has been in power there since 2010.

1,515 CUP members voted for Mas and the same number voted against him.

The drawn-out process of forming a government in Catalonia echoes the political stalemate gripping Spain at a national level following general elections two weeks ago in which no party was handed a clear mandate to lead.

Euronews