08.07.10

Barcelona (EFE) – The Catalan parliament decides on 28 July 2010 if they will ban bullfighting in the Spanish region of Catalonia.

This vote is a result of a civil initiative (ILP) signed by 180,000 Catalan people. According to parliamentary sources interviewed by press agency EFE the political parties have chosen to vote about this controversial subject in the last plenary session before summer reces.

The civil initiative was accepted by parliament on 18 December 2009, when 67 of the 135 MP's voted for continuation of the debate about a ban on bullfighting in Catalonia. This resulted in an annulment of the amendments submitted by PSC, PP and Ciudadanos. 5 MP's obstained from voting an 4 of them did not participate.

Bullfighter José Tomás torturing a bull

In view of the vote, aficionados and anti-bullfighting campaigners agree that all depends on the votes of the 48 MP's of the CiU party, who tended towards an anti-bullfighting vote in December. It is also important to know if all MP's of the PSC-CpC party (37 in total) will vote as a block to defend bullfighting* or if they will vote as individual MP's.

Of the changes that were suggested by the political parties on the civil initiative, the one presented by CiU gets the most support: they suggest to ban bullfighting as of January 1st 2012, if this is possible in this term. Plataforma PROU! (Enough!), the animal protection organization that presented the civil initative, agrees with this proposition.

During the last plenary session of this year, there will also be a vote on a bill that suggest to draw up better rules for correbous (bull runs and other fiestas) in Catalonia.

Source: http://www.animanaturalis.org/n/11065

* The Socialists in Spain are not really a fan of bullfighting, but they do think it is part of the Spanish culture. Therefore, they are a bit afraid to vote against bullfighting.