Catalan parliament backs Socialist to lead region, ending separatist rule

MADRID (Reuters) - Catalonia's parliament on Thursday confirmed Salvador Illa, an ally of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez whose Socialists came first in May's regional election, as head of the Catalan government, ending more than a decade of separatist rule.

However, in a sign of potential further unease, Illa's investiture was upstaged by separatist leader Carles Puigdemont who appeared at a rally in Barcelona, defying an arrest warrant after seven years of self-imposed exile, and then vanished before police could arrest him.

Puigdemont told the crowd he aimed to revive the independence drive that plunged Spain into a deep political crisis seven years ago when Catalonia, under Puigdemont's leadership, tried to secede from Spain following a referendum deemed illegal by courts.

(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi)