Catalonian voters punish go-it-alone leader

Voters in the economically powerful region of Catalonia have punished the leader who made a referendum over breaking away from Spain a central plank of his campaign, seeing his party’s majority reduced by a dozen seats.

Regional president Artur Mas called the early election as part of a power struggle with prime minister Mariano Rajoy regarding the size of Catalonia’s contribution to national coffers. But what began as a quarrel over money turned into a test of Spain’s territorial integrity.