The Bulls have had an unexpected fan base as of late. The Congress of Deputies joined Las Ventas or La Maestranza. Here they came out on their shoulders, weeks ago, to carry out the most important task of the year. Because a People’s Legislative Initiative (ILP) has collected 664,777 signatures to remove national cultural protection from bullfighting. However, the parliamentarians overturned his simple consideration. The proposal is mortally wounded, a complete coverage for bullfighting celebrations. Including Veronica, from the main government party, the PSOE, who let her support for the ILP filter through, but abstained at the last moment, dooming it to failure. The bullfight went from fright to ecstasy. And, this Tuesday, the counterattack on Congress, his new favorite place. A non-legal proposal, promoted by the Popular Party in the Culture Commission, attempted to double the bet: now that Spanish heritage has been reaffirmed, why can’t it be global? The text asked to urge the Government to submit the candidacy for the famous UNESCO list. Even if it didn’t move forward with a single vote: 18 against, 17 in favor. The PSOE, this time, was decisive with its refusal.
“To continue to deepen the preservation of the knowledge and wisdom that this artistic manifestation entails, it is essential to take a further step,” states the document, whose first signatory is María Soledad Cruz-Guzmán García, spokesperson of the PP in this area. The vast majority of NLPs, in reality, represent only a declaration of intentions: even if approved, they suggest to the Executive, without commitment, to focus on an issue. And even more so in this case: it was the very first hypothetical advancement of a process that would also depend on external factors, such as the possible opinion of UNESCO. Even so, this served to confirm the validity of the bullfighting issue. And how much the sector is strengthened by recent successes: it is difficult to even imagine, a few months ago, that Parliament was discussing its possible value as a global intangible heritage.
It seems like a lot has happened. And, at the same time, very few days. So, in the interventions and in the vote, familiar arguments were heard again. The debate, already polarized, goes from animal abuse to the soul and roots, passing through Goya, Lorca and small towns where bullfighting transcends political ideology. At least at the national level, positions are reiterated: the minority partner of the Executive, Sumar, as well as the left and Basque, Catalan and Galician nationalism, against bullfight celebrations and their protection. The PP and the far right Vox, very supportive. And socialists try to find a balance. His spokesperson, Isabel María Pérez Ortiz, today justified the no with two reasons. One of merit: “Cultural events registered by UNESCO must have broad social consensus. It is clear that it does not exist.” And another quibble: the candidacy must come from an autonomous community and its management is the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture, subject to approval by the Historic Heritage Council, a procedure which in this case did not occur.
“This PNL is a mockery of the Socialist Party and what we experienced a month ago. But it deepens a real wound: what the PSOE did is unforgivable, it deceived us all,” said Nahuel González, from Sumar. The president himself, Pedro Sánchez, recognized then that “it is not a question resolved within the PSOE”. However, the population seems to be increasingly clear: 77% reject bullfighting, according to a report published in February by the BBVA Foundation. And participation in bullfighting shows at least once a year has remained at 8% for years, according to data from the Ministry of Culture. However, depending on the region, it rises or falls. And the age groups most affected are those between 45 and 64 years and, above all, between 15 and 24 years. Access is still permitted for ages 14 and up, despite the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recommending that Spain ban children under 18 from participating.
Bullfighting is the cultural activity that generates the most rejection: 68% say they are interested between 0 and 2. But it celebrated 1,474 celebrations in 2023, more than before the pandemic, although mainly concentrated between Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Andalusia. In short, data for all tastes. Because anti-bullfighters see them as signs of agony: they denounce that right-wing local governments over-subsidize them, and even so the movement is not growing. But the PNL of the People’s Party states: “Statistics show us that there is a consensus and a lively fan base that can be legitimately rejected by some, but not prohibited or censored.”
The non-juridical proposition is not limited to numbers: it dates back to the 13th century and Alfonso “The bullfighting festivals or shows include bullfights and a numerous set of popular traditions and celebrations (…). All this is a sign of collective identity (…) it is an artistic manifestation in itself foreign to ideologies in which intelligence, value, aesthetics, solidarity or reasoning as a form of control of brute force are highlighted (…) The universality of the bullfight reaches the artistic worlds in which it has been accepted and that of the works he produced in the other arts, such as the plastic arts, literature, cinema, etc. and in the lexicon”, adds the document. And he underlined that the duel between the bullfighter and the animal is only the culmination: he mentioned the livestock, the making of the clothes, the music, the making of the posters and, finally, the economic and working dimension of the sector, which he defined as being of “first magnitude”. The People’s Party have already regretted the fact that the Culture Commission barely meets, a symptom of the situation impasse which affects all the parliamentary work of this legislature.
From the PP also came, just over a decade ago, the state coverage of the bulls: it was its government that approved, with an absolute majority, law 18/2013, “the seed” of today’s PNL, according to the popular spokesperson. Then the PSOE also abstained. The legislation establishes, in article 2, that bullfighting “is part of the cultural heritage worthy of protection throughout the national territory”. And at point 3: “The public authorities will guarantee the conservation of bullfighting and encourage its enrichment”. Furthermore, in practice it built an insurmountable wall: neither Catalonia could ban bullfights, nor the Balearic Islands could modify them to avoid the death of the animal, because the Constitutional Court in both cases underlined that this was contrary to law 18/2013.
This is why the recent citizen initiative sought to repeal this regulation and for each community to be able to freely decide whether to maintain, encourage or veto bulls. But the deputies turned a deaf ear to the proposal. And to the commitment of thousands of volunteers for months. And that Congress will host the photographic exhibition from next Monday until November 28th End the era of cageson the millions of caged animals in Europe. In the Culture Commission itself there were more contradictions: Joaquín Robles, of Vox, denounced in his PNL the “barbarism” “relating to the defense of the habits and customs of the Spanish people against foreign cultural practices such as the ‘Festival of the Lamb'”. A disappointing irony for Jorge Pueyo, of Sumar, which led the two deputies to throw repeated barbs at each other. The motif oscillates between glory and cruelty, depending on who is looking.
Towards the end, the PP’s PNL on the World Heritage nomination adds: “Such recognition is crucial for the protection of bullfighting, given the threat that its rejection could be used as a bargaining chip to satisfy political groups that propose the repeal of this law to build nationalist identities and create discourses, without prejudice to the recognition that a part of society does not share it.” This time the anti-bullfighting players achieved a small victory. Bullfighting will continue to be a Spanish heritage, but not a global one.
