The Spanish Ministry of Culture has decided to cancel the National Prize for Bullfighting. The recognition, awarded for the first time in 2013, will be eliminated due to a “new social and cultural reality” due to a growing “concern for animal welfare”, according to what was declared by sources in the Ministry directed by Ernest Urtasun. […]
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The Spanish Ministry of Culture has decided to cancel the National prize for bullfighting. The recognition, awarded for the first time in 2013, will be eliminated due to a “new social and cultural reality” due to a growing “concern for animal welfare”, according to what was declared by sources in the Ministry directed by Ernest Urtasun.
The national prize, which amounts to 30 thousand euros and is awarded annually to people or institutions who defend the bullfighting as an asset of cultural interest, it was born in 2011 during the Zapatero government, when responsibility for bullfighting activities passed from the Ministry of the Interior to that of Culture. The current minister has always declared himself opposite to the practice of bullfighting, stating for example that the “majority of Spaniards does not share animal abuse”.
Other reasons for eliminating the premium, according to the ministry, concern progression decrease of events linked to bullfighting (which went from 3651 in 2007 to 1546 in 2022) and data on the use of the Youth Cultural Voucher (a 400 euro voucher for 18-year-olds to spend on cultural activities), spent less and less on bullfighting games. For this reason, a 15-day public consultation has been opened on the ministry’s web page, which will be followed by permanent cancellation of the prize.
In fact, bullfighting is already disappearing locally Spain: in Catalonia and the Canary Islands it is no longer practiced, while in other territories bullfighting games are reduced. In response to the Ministry’s announcement, however, the regions where many activities involving bulls are still held they relaunched, announcing the birth of local awards. Both the president of Castile La Mancha and the Community of Madrid have declared their desire to give life to regional awards that “aspire to have national and international resonance”.
Among those who agree with the decision of the Spanish Ministry of Culture is theEnpa (the Italian National Animal Protection Agency) which writes thus on its web page: “We are finally starting to realize that in 2024 still proposing the mistreatment and killing of animals as a spectacle not only has no reason to exist, but it is totally opposite to the growing sensitivity of people who love animals […] We expect the Spanish government to finally make the right decision in this regard and ban the bullfight.”
