Recently, bulls have had an unexpected fan base. The House of Representatives joined Las Ventas or La Maestranza. There they stood, weeks ago, on the most important mission of the year. Because the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) collected 664,777 signatures to remove national cultural protections from bullfighting. However, parliamentarians dropped this simple consideration. The proposal is mortally wounded, a complete cover for the bullfighting festivities. Including Veronica of the main government party, the Socialist Workers’ Party, who allowed her support to reach the Independent Labor Party, but abstained at the last minute, dooming it to failure. Bullfighting turned from fear to ecstasy. On Tuesday, he will face the counterattack in Congress, his new favorite arena. An illegal proposal, promoted by the Popular Party in the Culture Committee, attempted to double the ante: now that this heritage has been confirmed as Spanish, why cannot it be spread throughout the world? The text asked to urge the government to submit nominations for the famous UNESCO list. Although he did not go ahead with a difference of one vote: 18 against and 17 in favor. This time, the Socialist Workers’ Party was decisive in rejecting it.
“To further deepen the preservation of the knowledge and wisdom implied by this artistic manifestation, it is necessary to take another step,” said the document, the first signatory of which was María Soledad Cruz Guzmán García, spokesperson for the People’s Party in this field. The vast majority of NLP, in fact, represents only a declaration of intent: even if approved, it suggests to the executive, without obligation, to focus on an issue. Even more so in this case: it was the first virtual advance of a process that also depends on external factors, such as the final opinion of UNESCO. However, this served to confirm the validity of the bullfighting issue. And how this sector has emerged thanks to its recent success: It is difficult to even imagine that, a few months ago, Parliament would have discussed its potential value as intangible world heritage.
It seems like a lot has happened. At the same time, very few days. Therefore, in the interventions and votes, the well-known arguments were heard again. The debate, already polarized, moves from animal abuse to spirit and roots, passing through Goya, Lorca and small municipalities where bullfighting transcends political ideology. At the national level, at least, the positions are repeated: the minority partner in the executive, Somar, as well as the left and Basque, Catalan and Galician nationalists, are against bullfighting celebrations and their protection. The People’s Party and the far-right Fox, strongly support this. Socialists are trying to achieve balance. Its spokeswoman, Isabel María Pérez Ortiz, today gave two reasons for the refusal. One of the essentials: “Cultural manifestations registered by UNESCO must have broad social consensus. Clearly, they do not exist.” And another technicality: the nomination must come from the autonomous region and its administration corresponds to the Ministry of Culture, with the prior approval of the Historical Heritage Council, a procedure that did not happen in this case.
Nahuel Gonzalez, from Somar, said, “This PNL is a mockery of the Socialist Party and what we witnessed a month ago. But it goes deep into a real wound: What the PSOE did is unforgivable. It deceived us all.” The president himself, Pedro Sanchez, admitted at the time that “the problem had not been resolved within the Socialist Workers Party.” However, the population seems to be becoming clearer: 77% reject bullfighting, according to a report published by BBVA in February. Attendance at bullfighting shows at least once a year has remained at 8% for years, according to Ministry of Culture figures. However, it rises or falls, depending on the region. The most interested age groups are between 45 and 64 years old, and above all, between 15 and 24 years old. Access is still permitted from the age of 14, although the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended that Spain ban attendance by people under 18.
Bullfighting is the cultural activity that generates the most disapproval: 68% confirmed that they were interested in it between 0 and 2. But it organized 1,474 celebrations in 2023, more than before the pandemic, although they were mainly concentrated between Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Andalusia. Data, in short, for all tastes. Because anti-bullfighting people see it as a sign of suffering: they denounce that right-wing local administrations give them excessive support, and even then the movement does not grow. But the Popular Party’s National Liberation Party said: “The statistics show us that there is a consensus and an active mass base that some may legitimately reject, but it is not banned or censored.”
The illegal subtraction did not go only to numbers: it goes back to the thirteenth century and Alfonso’s festivals or shows “Bullfighting includes bullfighting and a multitude of popular traditions and celebrations (…). All this is a sign of collective identity (…) It is an artistic manifestation in itself that has nothing to do with ideologies in which intelligence, value, aesthetics, solidarity or thinking are highlighted as a form of control over brute force (…) Universality of bullfighting The document added that “art reaches the artistic worlds where it finds Welcome, and his works that he produced in other arts such as plastic arts, literature, cinema, etc. and in the dictionary. He stressed that the duel between the bullfighter and the animal is only the culmination: he cited livestock, the clothing industry, music, poster making, and ultimately, the economic and labor dimension of the sector, which he described as “the first volume.” Indeed, that popularity also expressed its regret that the Culture Committee hardly meets, which is a symptom The dilemma Which affects all parliamentary work in this legislative body.
It is also from the People’s Party that, just over a decade ago, the state protected the bulls: its government approved, by an absolute majority, Law No. 18/2013, the “seed” of today’s National Liberation Party, according to the popular spokesman. The PSOE then also abstained from the vote. The system stipulates, in Article 2, that bullfighting “is part of the cultural heritage that deserves protection throughout the entire national territory.” On 3: “The public authorities will ensure the preservation of bullfighting and the promotion of its enrichment.” Moreover, it has practically built an impenetrable wall: neither Catalonia can ban bullfighting, nor can the Balearic Islands amend it to avoid the death of the animal, because in both cases the Constitutional Court confirmed that this contravenes Law 18/2013.
That’s why a recent citizens’ initiative sought to abolish this regulation, and that each community can freely decide whether to keep, encourage or object to bison. But the representatives turned a deaf ear to this proposal. And the efforts of thousands of volunteers over the months. Congress will host the photo exhibition from next Monday until November 28 Ending the cage eraabout the millions of animals trapped in Europe. In the Culture Committee itself, there were further contradictions: Joaquín Robles, of the Vox party, denounced “barbarism” in his patriotic book “in defending the usages and customs of the Spanish people against foreign cultural practices such as the ‘Festival of the Lamb’.” A disappointing irony by Jorge Puyo, of Sumar, led the two deputies to repeatedly exchange barbs. The reason for killing so many brave bulls ranges from glory to cruelty, depending on who looks.
Finally, the National Association of the People’s Party on World Heritage Nomination added: “This recognition is crucial to the protection of bullfighting, given the threat that its rejection could be used as a bargaining chip to satisfy political groups that propose to repeal this law to build nationalist identities and create discourses, without compromising the recognition that this part of society does not share.” This time the anti-bullfighting players scored a small victory. Bullfighting will remain a Spanish heritage, but it is not universal.
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