Catalonia won’t give up. We won’t either.

The Spanish Constitutional Court has raised the prohibition of bullfighting in Catalonia. A group of senators of the conservative political party Partido Popular (PP) has appealed the court to cancel the abolition.

The Constitutional Court voted with 8 votes in favour and 3 against. According to the court, Catalonia has gone much further than what is allowed by law in terms of animal protection. Catalonia uses this authorization to regulate events with animals, as well as the protection of animals. With this authorization Catalonia is able to prohibit a public event with bulls, but according to the court it is not possible to prohibit an event that has been recognized as Cultural Heritage by the central government: the authorizations of the state are insufficient to prohibit an event with the status of Cultural Patrimony. The Spanish senate declared bullfighting as cultural heritage in Spain on November 2013.

Marius Kolff, director of CAS International, was on Wednesday 19 October at the Catalonian Parliament where he spoke with members of the Parliament.

“Animals are being abused here for a local power struggle. The Constitutional Court represents the Spanish government. The Catalonian Parliament represents the Catalonian people. The Catalonian people do not want bullfighting to return. They will never allow this sentence to be enforced.”

Catalonian authorities will not follow court
The current government of Catalonia has declared not to follow the sentence of the Constitutional Court. The Catalonian Parliament

Prohibited bullfighting in 2010. In the legislation of the state of Catalonia the prohibition is described as followed: “bullfighting and events where animals are killed, in which the animals is stabbed with a pica and banderillas, and that tooks place in a bullring or outside.” An exception is the bullruns whereby animals are not harmed physically.

The Catalonian Parliament took the decision to prohibit bullfighting in July 28 2010. CAS International has worked for years, together with local organizations, to achieve the abolition in Catalonia. In April 2004, the municipality of Barcelona declared not to want more bullfights in its city. PROU (a platform against bullfighting) started a citizens initiative that was approved by the Catalonian Parliament in December 2009: more than 180,000 Catalans supported the initiative to end bullfighting in Catalonia. On January 1 2012, the prohibition went in effect.