Spain discards national bullfighting award in cultural change and generates debate

Madrid, Spain:

Spain’s left-wing government said on Friday it would scrap a national prize for bullfighting, a move that angered supporters of the controversial spectacle but was welcomed by animal rights groups.

“A growing majority” of Spaniards are concerned about animal welfare, so “we do not believe it is appropriate to maintain a prize that rewards a form of animal abuse,” said Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun, who belongs to the party of far-left Sumar. Junior coalition partners of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

“I think they understand even less that these forms of animal torture are rewarded with medals that are accompanied by monetary prizes with public money,” he added during an interview with private television La Sexta.

The annual prize, created in 2011 under a previous socialist government and first awarded in 2013, awards 30,000 euros ($32,000) to winners.

Top killers like Enrique Ponce and Julian Lopez, known as “El Juli”, have won the award in the past.

Bullfighting maintains a passionate following in some circles in Spain and top matadors are treated like celebrities.

But the mass appeal of this practice has faded and polls show a growing lack of interest across the country, especially among young people.

Just 1.9 percent of the Spanish population attended a bullfight during the 2021-22 season, down from 8.0 percent in 2018-19, according to a survey of leisure habits carried out by the Ministry of Culture.

In recent years, bullfighting has become a key issue in Spain’s culture wars, pitting left-wing parties against conservatives who argue they are an integral part of the country’s identity.

‘Legalized animal abuse’

The main conservative opposition party, the Popular Party (PP), promised to quickly reinstate the prize if it returns to power.

PP spokesman Borja Semper accused the government of being “obsessed with sticking its finger in the eyes of those who don’t think”, as it does, while the party’s spokesman in parliament, Miguel Tellado, said bullfighting was “part of our culture, our traditions”.

Several regional governments, including one run by Socialists in Castilla-La Mancha, where bullfighting is popular, have said they would create their own bullfighting prizes to replace the one being dismantled.

The Fundacion del Toro de Lidia, an NGO that promotes bullfighting in Spain, accused Urtasun of carrying out his duties in a discriminatory manner against bullfighting.

“A Minister of Culture cannot exercise his powers based on his personal preferences, he has the obligation to promote and encourage all cultural events, including bullfighting,” he said in a statement.

‘March’

But animal rights groups welcomed the government’s decision.

Animal rights party PACMA called the move a “positive step” and urged the government to go further with the “total abolition” of all forms of public support for bullfighting.

“We consider it to be a legalized form of animal abuse and cannot be justified under any circumstances, much less encouraged through any type of economic or social incentive,” he said in a statement.

“This measure represents a milestone in the fight against bullfighting, a controversial practice that has generated debate for years,” said animal rights group AnimaNaturalis.

Some 44.1 percent of Spaniards were in favor of banning bullfighting, according to a 2021 poll for research firm Electomania, while 34.7 percent supported the tradition and 21.2 percent said they had no opinion. about the subject.

The Spanish Canary Islands banned bullfighting in 1991. The northeastern region of Catalonia followed suit in 2010, but this ban was overturned by the Spanish constitutional court six years later.

Bullfighting also takes place in Portugal and southern France, as well as in former Spanish colonies in Latin America, where opposition to the practice is also growing.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)