The ambiguity of the PSOE with the bulls: it abstains from supporting bullfighting celebrations without rejecting it to mark distances with Sumar

For the PSOE, bullfighting issues have become entrenched and since its formation it has chosen ambiguity as a model. This Tuesday the socialists have chosen to abstain from the non-law proposal that the PP has taken to the Culture Commission of the Congress of Deputies to support the celebration of popular bullfighting celebrations, which has gone ahead with their votes and those of Vox . An abstention that they had already used in the Senate with the restitution of the National Bullfighting Award, eliminated by the Ministry of Culture, and that later turned into a vote against when transferring the issue to the Lower House.

Because the sensitivities with bullfighting are diverse both within the National Government and in the Socialist Party itself. Sumar is clearly against it, as reflected in the elimination of the National Award and in his rejection yesterday of the PP proposal. However, in the PSOE both realities coexist: those who are against the bulls – the minister Oscar Puente– and those who are openly bullfighting – the barons Eneko Andueza o Emiliano García Page-. And, in this area, the PSOE opted this Tuesday to abstain from a proposal that was qualified by the deputy. Maribel Garcia “combustible”, “full of disconnected data” and “not very rigorous”.

“To be rigorous, bullfighting festivities are not considered a tourist product in themselves, nor is opera, but rather as another tourist resource,” said the parliamentarian, who assured that the Ministry of Culture already publishes information about these events. celebrations in its annual statistics and the Ministry of Industry and Tourism includes them in its promotional pages. Furthermore, the socialist deputy charged against the PP for “blend in with the simplistic and far-right concepts” of Vox understanding that the registration demanded by the popular people is a responsibility of the autonomous communities.

The PP initiative, which precisely sought to force the socialists to take a position, established the need to create a national registry of the popular bullfighting celebrations that exist in the different autonomies –20,821 in 2,034 municipalities of the national territoryaccording to a report from the business association Anoet-. According to the text, this registration would mean its “protection as cultural heritage” and “as an economic lever for the different localities where they are developed, especially in those with less population, for their protection, promotion and dissemination.”

“Bullfighting celebrations are an inseparable part of our history and our culture, they are a brand of Spain, and they have an incontestable cultural, historical, social and environmental value”, defended the PP deputy, Sol Cruz-Guzmán, who described the withdrawal of the National Bullfighting Award as “censorship”, resorting to the fact that the bulls have been a “central” part. of national “history” and “culture.” “This is not about the right or the left, but about defending a valuable common heritage.”

In fact, the parliamentarian popular He assured that the celebrations “cannot be anyone’s ideological flag” and appealed directly to the PSOE to obtain their support, which he did find in Vox. “We ask you to be brave, not to be ashamed and not to give in to blackmail [de Sumar]“, stressed the PP spokesperson in the Commission.

At the opposite extreme was Sumar’s deputy, Jorge Pueyo, who endorsed the decision of Ernest Urtasun, a party colleague, to eliminate the bullfighting distinction from the National Awards. “Enough of talking about contempt when what we are seeing is that for the first time a minister is doing what should have been done for a long time,” he said. The parliamentarian added that “bullfighting is the past”, that “animal abuse should never be a national heritage to be defended by anyone” and that “in an advanced country it would not exist.”