The bullfighters are used to living decisive moments. It happens in each work: life, triumph and death are often separated by moments, or millimeters. But, now, all bullfighting will be forced to face a key crossroads: Congress is obliged to vote, within six months, a popular legislative initiative (ILP) that aims to repeal Law 18/2013 that protects the party as a cultural heritage. The Central Electoral Board has confirmed Monday that the text is supported by 664,777 valid signatures of citizens, well above the 500,000 necessary, as reported by the initiative promoting commission, it is not my culture. Which means that the Congress table has a maximum half -year period to take it to debate in plenary. There will be no nuances. Each party will have to position yourself: for or against. Bullfighting can come out unharmed, even on shoulders. Or seriously injured, maybe death.
Which predicts problems especially for the main government party, the PSOE. The vote in favor of the Executive’s minority partner, to add, can be taken for granted, among many other reasons because the Ministry of Culture, which is directed by the spokesman for the party, Ernest Urtasun, suppressed last year the National Award of Tauromaquia, which was delivered since 2013 with an endowment of 30,000 euros. Esquerra Republicana and Unidas Podemos have also repeatedly champion their desire for bullfights to be forbidden. On the contrary, the main opposition formation, the Popular Party, and the extreme right of Vox will oppose the ILP. Hence, the success or failure of the initiative is almost surely in the hands of the Socialists, who to date have shown internal divisions on the argument, but have never been forced to make a decision of this draft.
The PSOE abstained at the motion that the PP presented in the Senate where the Government was urged to convene the prize eliminated by Urtasun and to restore the gold medal to the merit of the fine arts for bullfighting, suppressed in 2023. “The PSOE clarifies, announces and determines that not only respects the bullfighting legal, we will continue to help and maintain it, ”said Senator Alfonso Moscoso. Finally, in addition, the alternative award was born, promoted by the PP, the Senate, the Toro de Lidia Foundation and different autonomous communities, including Castilla-La Mancha, governed by the Socialists.
At the same time, however, the PSOE rejected in June 2024 a non -law proposition of the PP in Congress that asked to recover the National Prize. “The question is where the Socialist Party is located. We do not know its position, but in bullfighting their voters are teachers,” said PP spokesman Eduardo Hermoso. Since he is president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez has not publicly positioned himself on bullfighting. In 2014, the then Socialist General Secretary declared in an interview that respected bullfighting culture, but would not see him in a bullfight. “He has recognized us that he does not like, but also that he will not try to abolish them,” said businessman José Miguel Arroyo after a sector meeting with Sánchez in the same year.
It is not my culture regrets that the law that they seek to repeal “restricts the competence of the autonomous communities and municipalities to prohibit these shows”, another of the reasons why their initiative launched. The drivers hope that the elimination of the norm that approved in 2013 the government that then led the PP with Mariano Rajoy facilitates that local administrations can cancel those celebrations. Currently, bullfighting powers are in the hands of the Autonomous Communities, which can regulate bullfighting fairs but not suppress them, since their condition of cultural heritage gives them the protection of the Constitution. In 2023, when the then Socialist Minister of Socialist Culture Miquel Iceta tried to exclude the bulls from the activities in which the young cultural bonus could be spent – the 400 euros that the Government gives to those who turn 18 -, the Supreme Court forced him to reculate since the bullfighting has recognized by law “its cultural, historical and artistic dimensions”. And seven years before, the Constitutional annulled the prohibition of the celebrations approved by the Parliament of Catalonia. The success of the ILP would mean, however, unprotected the bulls, so that they become a simple public spectacle, leaving their destiny in the hands of each region.
The official data collected by culture offers arguments to the two sides of the faced ideological battle. In 2023, the last figure available, the celebrations fell: 1,474 compared to 1,546 in 2022. Although they exceeded the prepaandemics numbers: in 2019 they had been 1,425. The vast majority concentrated between Madrid, Castilla y León, Castilla La Mancha and Andalucía. At the same time, professionals in the sector grew in all categories, to their highest figure in a five years: matadores, rejoneadores, bullfighters, banderilleros or picadores. In addition, a new bullfighter emerged: seven to eight passed. Although, more generally, women represent 2.7% of all professionals. The advance of the latest Culture Habits survey does not collect data on assistance to bulls, hence the most recent official statistics is that of the 2021-2022 biennium, where all cultural activities were very affected by the health crisis of the Coronavirus: they had gone to bulls in the last year 1.9% of the population.
A year ago the ILP promoters collected the first firm. Last February they delivered 715,606 before the Office of the Electoral Census of Madrid, in an act in which different animalist associations were concentrated in front of the Congress between shouts of “enough of violence against animals.” “You have to build a life -based culture and not death and cruelty,” said the manifesto that they spread then. Today Monday the process has completed in one of the ILP with greater social support in the last decade, according to it is not my culture. The truth is that, of the 154 presented since 1984, only two were endorsed by Congress, with modifications, and two others were incorporated into other standards. Interestingly, one of the few to prosper was the one presented by the Federation of Bullfighting Entities of Catalonia in March 2012, so that bullfighting was declared well of cultural interest (BIC). Although finally the 2013 law approved by the PP reduced the level of protection to “cultural heritage.” Now, all this is at stake again. From here to six months, the answer will go to the ring.