Europe of peoples and nations

On December, 16th and 17h, a debate took place in Madrid just during the Catalan crisis. On December 16th the debate was held at the Hermandad association. The theme is titled “The peoples, the regions, the nations, the glue of Europe”. Speakers from four nations. Gabriele Adinolfi, chairman of Europe, intorduced by Maria Giovanna de Palma (Italy), said that the Catalan crisis is the result of outdated logic because in the satellite age and in global markets institutional sovereignty can no longer be that of the past. The unease that many feel and that urges them to ask for a Jacobin centralism it is an irrational escape in an unreal scheme. This concerns both those who want to stifle the separatist pressures and those who want to bring them to the end. Social and politiical transformations lead to the affirmation of localism harmoniously combined in the continentalization. What matters is to correctly accompany the evolution of Europe and ensure the representation of peoples and social categories. The historical nations and the small homelands will naturally find their place and their weight the clash between these two conceptions today makes no sense.

Director of the french revue Synthèse Nationale, Roland Hélie, explained that in France the Corsican and Breton nationalists as well as the Alsatian and Norman patriots in their criticism of the centralism of Paris they do not pretend to carry out secession. They do not question France but want more autonomy or greater cultural recognition; the same can be true for Catalonia and Spain. Athanassios Tanos, greek member of EurHope, spoke of the danger of fragmentation of nations and peoples and denounced a program of division in Greece with Thessaloniki against Athens and he explained how for him these secessionist pressures risk destroying European unity. Enrique Ravello, director of spanish revue Europae, on the other hand, he believes that the Catalan claims are in fact just right because for at least two centuries Madrid has behaved in an excessively authoritarian way, up to denying, for many years, the right to traditional Catalan dances in public festivals In his opinion, the policy of Catalan independen Il grectists is however wrong and with no way out. Spanish editor Manuel Quesada he insisted on the lack of historical meaning of the current issue and called for general maturation to cope with real problems.

December 16th at night in the restaurant Puerta Grande a debate-dinner took place; the theme is titled “Between independentism and Jacobinism, a third way to live together”. The same speakers made a summary of the afternoon’s speeches questioned for over three hours by the large audience of diners. In particular, Gabriele Adinolfi has dwelled on the historical origins of Jacobinism and on the limits it has in our time.

The morning of December 17th an international round table was held at the hotel Nueva Madrid to express a common vision on the fact that the idea of Europe is in a position to overcome the stalemate between Jacobinism and separatism and that these positions are the best for.

The interventions were translated into Spanish by Italian, English and French.