The ones who wondered why the Spanish government never wanted to recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state, can find their answer now with the Catalan independence referendum, and the independence struggle and mass demonstrations against the central government of Madrid.
The independence of Kosovo opened doors for many other regions who seeks independence. All over the world we are seeing such movements fighting to get recognized, where some of the most relevant stories are related to Crimea and the Kurdish areas in Syria, Iraq and Turkey. In Iraq the Kurdish independence is already assured.
The fear of an "internal Kosovo" has also stopped several other countries from recognizing Kosovo, for example did Moldavia also not recognize Kosovo because they fear that a recognition would open the way for a independence of Transnistria.
When Spain saw Serbia lose Kosovo they knew that the Basque, the Catalan and the Galician independence movements had a concrete case they could use in order to state that they had the same right as Kosovo to claim indendence. Some analysts even saw Spain as a potential next Yugoslavia with independence clashes that could go as far as civil war.
There is no doubt that there is a long political battle ahead of us concerning Catalonia and the Basque region, both regions did for decades have independence thoughts. Speculation on whether Spain would be a new Yugoslavia or not might be taking it a bit to an extreme, but it does not seem as an unlikely scenario that Spain within the next 20 years can become a smaller country than what they are now.
The Catalan people are having Kosovo as their case to which they can relate their right to claim independence, and if Catalonia manages to gain sovereignty then it can provoke a domino effect in the rest of the regions that are seeking sovereignty in Spain.
Do you see it as a likely scenario that Catalonia will become independent?