It's not enough that the Catalans organise votes on independence without asking permission, now they are even considering the prohibition of bullfighting! It's possible that the acceptance yesterday by the Catalan parliament of a popular initiative to put an end to the bloodsport has caused even more heart problems in the higher barrios of Madrid than last week's independence 'consultations'. "La fiesta nacional" is under threat, and the right-wing consensus seems to be that they are only doing it to provoke Spain, El Mundo claimed on its front page this morning that the purpose of the vote was to distance Cataluña from the rest of the country.
Yesterday's vote was actually quite close, and was just a preliminary to the main vote which will take place in a few months time. The bull fighting industry is preparing itself for battle, despite all the rhetoric about the Catalans the reality is that the sport faces growing opposition in many parts of the country, and home grown opposition to it has grown significantly in the last few years. It moves a lot of money, and attracts a lot of spending from municipalities for their annual fiestas, but for many younger Spaniards it is a relic from another age and what probably worries the industry most is the risk of contagion if Cataluña sets the example. Nobody should imagine bullfighting is about to disappear, but we could be witnessing the first clear signals of decline.
7 comments:
Some on the 'left' would love to paint this as a Right vs. Left issue, but those of us who have been here long enough know that this is not the case in the least.
A quick read of El Pais should be enough for those who doubt...of course that is if one considers El Pais from the 'left'.
It might be too simplistic to paint it as a left/right issue but that is still a factor along with age and geography. I suspect that there are far more people on the left that are opposed to bullfighting than on the right.
I went along to a carol singing doodad the other day - about 30 or 40 Brits thundering out Good King Wenceslas in the local parque comercial.
None of them were under sixty years old.
Do you think we should ban it?
Uh,...Troy...?
Ban Christmas Carols? Where did that come from?
@Graeme You're probably right, there are certainly more anti-taurinos on the left, but I can guarantee that you'll find many PSOE-types sporting fur coats during this recent cold snap as they tuck into a plate of pork that was intensively farmed.
The intensive farms out here in Ex make the bulls 15 minutes in the ring look like a holiday. Seems to me if they cared about one thing, they should the other.
Well given that I've just placed the order for my next Extremaduran jamon perhaps I won't comment directly on that. I think Lenox is testing the argument that banning bullfighting is just the prelude to the banning of all simple pleasures, although since we stopped the equally traditional burning of heretics I haven't noticed a significant decline in personal liberty.
Graeme...a little Ex propaganda here. That's the beauty of real 'iberico de bellota' products. Those charming and tasty black pigs live quite a nice life out in the countryside until the slaughterhouse, no intensive concentration camps for them.
Thanks for the clarification regarding Lenox's comment...though I'm afraid I have to somewhat agree with him. I am not in favour of banning them at all...though I would have a serious look into the finances of town halls hosting them with public money.
Thanks Troy, that's what I was hoping to hear. It's just that sometimes the image doesn't correspond with the reality.
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