They still have 18 months. Bullfighters are determined to fight to the last day to prevent the law passed today ending their bloody tradition. On the other hand, the "antitaurinos" will fight to ensure that nobody even "touches" the bill before it takes effect.

There is a huge dispute over the rights of animals and the tendency to preserve a pillar of traditional culture - tauromaquia. Yes, still is. This approbation of the law will not finish the debate. It was interesting that after the approbation of similar law in Canary Islands in 1991, there was no such an impassioned discussion in Spain. But Catalonia -Spain's first major region- is a different story. It is the wealthy region with its own language and culture, with a strong movement against the Spanish royal family and with more or less strong tendency to create a separate republic. Many in Spain have seen the pressure here for a bullfighting ban as a further bid by Catalonia to stand out from the rest of the country. That is why the president of the Generalitat, José Montilla, asked not to make from the ban a new conflict between Catalonia and the rest of the country.

However, the bullfighting became a political issue in Spain. "Antitaurinos" hope that (sooner or later) it will be possible to ban the bullfighting in the whole country and even beyond the borders. The tradition is still strong in Mexico, some countries of South America, southern France and Portugal. "It is a responsibility to civilization," they say. But there are others, who are declaring that bullfighting is Spain's "fiesta nacional" and that is why it must be part of Madrid's cultural heritage. One of the arguments is that special bulls will disappear from the Earth. Paradoxically, they could survive thanks to bullfighting, which is known for killing bulls.

The "war" over the ban is not over yet. When Canary Islands banned the bullfighting, no body protested loudly because "there was no tradition of this fiesta". But what kind of tradition has Catalonia? There is only one functioning bullring. It is in Barcelona. Another disused one is being turned into a shopping mall. It stages 15 fights a year that are rarely sold out. The business struggles with the crisis even more. And now "taurinos" have got another hit. The general ban. Was it impossible to ban just most controversial parts of bullfighting? What would it be banned than? Killing? Torturing? Scaring? Anyhow, there are some places in the world, where tauromaquia still exists as a part of the culture, but animals survive in bullrings... and outside of bullrings as well.

Miroslava Hospodarova

Photo: ISIFA