A Spanish judge has rejected a prosecutor’s request for Denmark to detain fugitive Catalan ex-leader Carles Puigdemont.

The decision came as politicians in Catalonia proposed former regional leader Mr Puigdemont as candidate to form a government, despite his status as a fugitive from Spanish justice.

Mr Puigdemont arrived in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on Monday to talk at a university there and meet Danish politicians. It marks his first trip outside Belgium since he left Spain dodging a judicial investigation into an illegal, and unsuccessful, independence declaration in late October.