No Ole as Catalans eye bullfighting ban
Source: Agencies |
July 28, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LAWMAKERS in Catalonia might ban bullfighting in a close vote this week, rejecting a pillar of traditional Spain in a region with its own language and culture and an acute sense of being a country within a country.
If a proposed ban is approved in today's local legislature vote, the wealthy northeast coastal region centered around Barcelona would become the first in mainland Spain to outlaw the deadly ballet of sword-wielding matador and charging half-ton beast.
The practical effect of such a move would be limited: Catalonia has only one functioning bullring, in Barcelona - another disused one is being turned into a shopping mall - and it stages 15 fights a year which are rarely sold out, out of a nationwide total of roughly 1,000 bouts per season.
Still, bullfighting buffs and Spanish conservatives are taking the drama very seriously. They see a stinging anti-Spanish rebuke in a grassroots, anti-bullfighting drive that started last year and will culminate in the vote in the 135-seat Catalan Parliament.
The final result will depend on the region's two dominant parties - a center-right coalition, Convergence and Union, and the local branch of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists. Both are allowing their members to vote as they please rather than force them to toe the party line, a break with tradition showing how sensitive the issue is.
The first Spanish region to outlaw bullfighting was the Canary Islands, in 1991. But fights were never that popular there anyway and when the ban took effect there had not been one for seven years. So Catalonia's is a much more potent case, even if bullfighting is not as popular there as it is in Madrid or Andalusia down south.
Josep Rull, a Convergence and Union spokesman, predicted a close vote and victory for the anti-bullfighting camp. Bullfighting would thus vanish from Catalonia starting in 2012.
Along with the Basque region, Catalonia has the most self-rule among Spain's semi-autonomous regions.
If a proposed ban is approved in today's local legislature vote, the wealthy northeast coastal region centered around Barcelona would become the first in mainland Spain to outlaw the deadly ballet of sword-wielding matador and charging half-ton beast.
The practical effect of such a move would be limited: Catalonia has only one functioning bullring, in Barcelona - another disused one is being turned into a shopping mall - and it stages 15 fights a year which are rarely sold out, out of a nationwide total of roughly 1,000 bouts per season.
Still, bullfighting buffs and Spanish conservatives are taking the drama very seriously. They see a stinging anti-Spanish rebuke in a grassroots, anti-bullfighting drive that started last year and will culminate in the vote in the 135-seat Catalan Parliament.
The final result will depend on the region's two dominant parties - a center-right coalition, Convergence and Union, and the local branch of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists. Both are allowing their members to vote as they please rather than force them to toe the party line, a break with tradition showing how sensitive the issue is.
The first Spanish region to outlaw bullfighting was the Canary Islands, in 1991. But fights were never that popular there anyway and when the ban took effect there had not been one for seven years. So Catalonia's is a much more potent case, even if bullfighting is not as popular there as it is in Madrid or Andalusia down south.
Josep Rull, a Convergence and Union spokesman, predicted a close vote and victory for the anti-bullfighting camp. Bullfighting would thus vanish from Catalonia starting in 2012.
Along with the Basque region, Catalonia has the most self-rule among Spain's semi-autonomous regions.
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