A bull gets its horns stuck in the sand at the Maestranza bullring in Seville
Photograph: Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters

Bullfight Reform Plan is Red Rag to Aficionados
by Giles Tremlett
Thursday December 21, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Spain's environment minister, Cristina Narbona, sparked a furious reaction from the country's legion of bullfighting fans today by suggesting that her country adopt the Portuguese custom of not killing bulls in the arena.

Ms Narbona told journalists she wanted the Socialist government to force Spanish matadors to adopt the Portuguese style of bullfighting, where the animals are slain humanely after the bullfight.

"We must try to avoid, at the very least, the blood-soaked finale," she said. "It will have to be done gradually, perhaps in the next legislature."

Her remarks provoked rage amongst bullfight fans, who consider Portuguese bullfighting to be a pale imitation of the real thing.

"The minister's aim is to kill off the bullfight," claimed the matador Miguel Abellán. "What the minister should be doing is defending the interests of ordinary Spaniards, including millions of bullfighting aficionados," said Enrique Garza of the Association of Bullfight Organisers.

Opposition politicians attacked the minister for daring to criticise what they saw as an essential part of Spanish culture.

"This just shows the interventionist, totalitarian instincts of the government," raged Pío García-Escudero, senate leader of the conservative People's party.

The minister's proposal also managed to split Spain's communist-led United Left coalition. The coalition leader, Gaspar Llamazares, accused her of trying to import "Anglo-Saxon prejudices" into Spanish culture. The coalition's parliamentary spokesman Joan Herrera, however, welcomed the proposal for altering a "savage and atavistic tradition".

"Her proposal should be listened to and placed on the agenda of a country that is now in the 21st century," he said. "We need a government with sufficient courage and dignity to put an end to the macabre spectacle of people sitting down in a bullring to watch someone repeatedly stab a living animal," said Consuelo Polo of the Ecologists in Action group.

The minister's remarks came amid reports that Barcelona's last remaining bullring is to close. A lack of fans in the city meant that it was no longer profitable to use the ring for bullfights, according to the newspaper El País. A second bullring in Barcelona is already being transformed into a shopping centre.

The government, with an eye on the bullfighting vote, was quick to point out yesterday that there was no formal proposal to introduce Portuguese-style corridas.

"It is not part of the government's plan," said the interior minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, whose ministry is in charge of bullfighting regulations. "It is a personal idea of the minister."

:: This article was provided to us by "Angela's News" on Jan. 4, 2007 @ 08:26 am PST ::

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