Why Catalan elections matter to all European citizens.

Hi to all of you, European citizens. Most people think the issue related to the vote in Barcelona to represent just an internal Spanish dispute. It is not in my opinion. Indeed in Catalunia two forces confronts. The pro-Spanish-Unity one asserts that the unity of Spain is engraved in the Spanish constitution and thus the vote is illegal. Catalan people ask instead to express their opinion, peacefully, on this matter. Much more is at stake. Here two visions of Europe clashes. The first one consider Europe (the European Union or any other supranational structure) as a "sovrastructure" of the national states; this vision is the one that dominated so far, with the results we all can witness. The second one sees the devolution of power from the national states as a prerequisite for a real European confederation of states, formed not necessarily of the present national states. Thus aside from any specific consideration of the reasons of the two sides, it is important to recognize that whoever sides with the Spanish state at present, he/she also sides with the "old" vision of Europe, and viceversa. We have to remember that most European national states reached the present conformation in the 19 century. They were created along the design of a state with one ethnic group, one language, one religion. Of course this vision is greatly outdated. In many areas of Milan, the biggest city in Italy, Italians comprise less than 20% of the total population, and over 100,000 Italians (2% of the total) leave Italy every year. Similar considerations can be done for all other European countries, I think. National states are also outdated in the global stage, where only Germany and France get some (minor) consideration. So, again, we are at a crossroad.