Catalonia ban on bullfighting overturned
Print Edition
SPAIN’S Constitutional Court yesterday cancelled a bullfighting ban in Catalonia in what is likely to exacerbate tensions between Madrid and the separatist region, and between animal activists and fans of the tradition.
In a statement, the court argued bullfighting was classified as part of Spain’s heritage, and therefore a decision on banning it was a matter for the central government and not for semi-autonomous regions.
The ban has been declared “unconstitutional and void,” it said.
In 2010, Catalonia’s regional parliament voted to ban bullfighting from January 1, 2012 after animal rights groups managed to garner 180,000 signatures for a petition demanding a debate.
It was the first region in mainland Spain to ban the tradition, although the Canary Islands abolished bullfighting in 1991.
Critics at the time argued that more than an animal rights issue, Catalonia’s ban was also politically-motivated in a region with its own language, a fierce sense of identity and a desire to seek independence from Spain.
As such, the ban is likely to increase already-high tensions between Madrid and Catalonia, where the regional government is making moves to separate from Spain and has announced a referendum on the issue next year.
Bullfighting has drawn increasing controversy and protests around Spain in recent years, with demonstrators turning up and taking to Twitter to denounce what they feel is a brutal, anachronistic event.
While no other region has banned bullfighting since Catalonia made the move, Castile and Leon in Spain’s northwest abolished the killing of bulls at town festivals in June.
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