Animal welfare

New proposal to make bullfighting impossible

Mallorca Sense Sang is the campaign against bullfighting. | Archive

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma15/10/2016 00:00

The parties of government in the Balearics are considering a way round any possible judgement which might mean that bullfighting cannot be banned in the Balearics. The Constitutional Court is yet to deliver its ruling on the legality of the ban in Catalonia. If it rules against the Catalonian government, then this would complicate any Balearic ban.

Last week, David Abril, parliamentary spokesperson for Més, acknowledged that it wouldn't be wise to move ahead with the legislation at present. Taking a different view, Laura Camargo, his counterpart with Podemos, insisted that a ruling against the Catalonia ban would not bring about a stop to the Balearic legislative process and was all for pushing ahead with a ban regardless of any court ruling.

Now, a new proposal is to be presented. This would permit bullfights so long as there is no death, no torture, no mistreatment, harm or suffering to the animal. There are other aspects to this legislative modification. One of these would be that liability insurance would be raised so high that it wouldn't be viable to stage a bullfight.

The assumption being made is that the Constitutional Court will rule that a regional authority cannot ban bullfighting but can regulate it. It is this capacity to regulate that has guided the new proposal.

There is, however, a problem with presenting this as an amendment to the text of the legislation. The period for incorporating amendments has finished, and they can only now be added if there is unanimous agreement by all parties in parliament. It is unlikely that the Partido Popular will agree, and this may be the case with Ciudadanos as well.