Bullfighting groups lock horns as Spain’s political landscape shifts
At least 17 Spanish cities and towns have slashed municipal funding for bullfights and bull runs or passed measures condemning or banning them.
As matadors face half-tonne bulls this month during Madrid’s most important annual series of bullfights and Pamplona gears up for its chaotic July bull runs down cobblestoned streets, tensions are building between anti-bullfighting forces and the traditions’ defenders, who have launched Spain’s first pro-bullfight lobbying group.
At least 17 Spanish cities and towns have slashed municipal funding for bullfights and bull runs or passed measures condemning or banning them since the new leftist Podemos party won its first seats in local and regional elections a year ago.
Now that the political scenery has changed, there is a window of opportunity at the local level to promote the anti-bullfighting agenda
The Podemos party finished third in an inconclusive December national election that splintered the country’s traditional two-party system into four. It will be repeated June 26, when Podemos could overtake the No. 2 centre-left Socialists.
Bull spectacles are expected to be banned this summer on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca by the regional Balearic Islands parliament ruled by a coalition including Podemos – six years after northeastern Catalonia prohibited bullfights but enshrined as cultural heritage bull runs and events featuring bulls running around with flaming balls of wax or fireworks affixed to their horns.
Animal rights activists say the gory fights are among the planet’s most blatant forms of animal cruelty, with bulls lanced and finally stabbed through the heart.
Matadors are praised for killing with a single stab, though some don’t succeed in finishing off the animal with repeated thrusts. Foreign tourists attending fights for the first time often leave stunned.