Spanish bullfighting, also banned in Peru

Last year's decision by the Catalan Parliament to ban bullfighting has been under constant threat from the Spanish government. Spain spares no expense when it comes to folkloric events, like spending around 600 million euros of public funds every year on bullfighting. Most Catalans believe this expense to be an aberration, especially in the middle of the current financial crisis. On the other hand, Spanish unionist parties are trying to overturn the Catalan Parliament’s decision through the courts in Madrid, just as they had previously done with the Catalan statute. 

However, things are not going well for the Spanish supremacists. Former Spanish colonies are banning bullfighting as well. Quito (Ecuador) was the first city to forbid the slaughter of bulls. Additionally, the Panamanian Parliament decided to ban bullfighting last March. Even in Portugal the type of bullfighting where bulls are not killed is not permitted. The Spanish bullfighting supporters who claim that the Catalan parliament had banned bullfighting for political reasons seem to have ignored the fact that Panama (March 2012), Bogotá, Colombia (June 2012), and Perú (September 2012) have all taken similar decisions. The law 1454/2012-IC is absolutely clear on the Spanish barbaric tradition of killing bulls for entertainment purposes. The campaign to forbid bullfighting lasted ten years in Perú, and bullfighting supporters in Spain are increasingly becoming a minority. Curiously, while Spanish politicians say that Catalonia banned bullfighting for “nationalistic reasons” they remain silent on the motivations behind the decisions in Bogotá, Panama, and Perú.