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| © CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP/Getty French matador Sebastian Castella, and Spanish matadors Pablo Aguado, Jose Maria Manzanares, El Litri, Alejandro Talavante, Campuzano, Pepe Moral, Cayetano Rivera, and Espartaco observe a minute of silence for coronavirus victims during a demonstration demanding more resources for the bullfighting tradition in Seville on June 13, 2020. |
Bullfighters across Spain have held demonstrations demanding the government provide support and resources after the season was shutdown amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Thousands of people took to the streets in cities such as Madrid and Seville on Saturday to ask the event is treated the same as other arts in the country.
One march also took place in Barcelona despite no bullfighting events taking place in the city since 2011.
The demonstrators urged Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's administration not to discriminate against bullfighting, insisting it "makes up part of the culture of a free people who celebrate the life of a mythical animal, with thousand year-old rituals," according to Euro Weekly.
The COVID-19 outbreak halted bullfighting in Spain, with several large annual events such as Seville's April Fair and Pamplona's San Fermin being forced to cancel.
The cancellation of these events has seen the bulls who were meant to feature being sent straight to the slaughterhouse.
"The COVID-19 crisis has had an enormous impact," Juan de Castilla, a 25-year-old Colombian bullfighter who attended the protest in Guadalajara, told Reuters. "It has reduced almost by 100 percent the scheduled events for the year and all the families that live off bullfighting have been too affected."
Explaining his reason for joining the march, 58-year-old Jesus Romero said: "We have come to proclaim that the bullfighting world is important for society, Spain and Guadalajara."
In a statement read out at each protest, the bullfighters said they demand the "respect of a society which does not think like us," while defending the "unalienable rights of all the collectives subjected to the brutal hounding of a society which should be based on tolerance and respect."
The government has allowed the spectacle to return as it further lifts its lockdown procedures, which were some of the strictest in the world at its height, but only at 50 percent occupancy inside bullrings and a limit of 800 attendees in regions with fewer lockdown restrictions.
The cancellation of bullfighting during the COVID-19 outbreak arrived as the event experiences a dwindling of support in recent years.
In 2016, an IpsosMORI poll said that more than half of Spanish people aged 16-65 (58 percent) said they oppose bullfighting, compared to 19 percent who supported it.
More than two thirds also said they are "not very or not at all proud" of living in a country where bullfighting is a cultural tradition.
In 2018, the number of bullfighting events taking place in Spain fell to a low of 1,521 as younger generations turned against it. Government figures also revealed that only eight percent of the population attended a bull fight in 2019.
Spain is set to open its borders to EU countries except Portugal on June 21, with the border opening for its neighboring country on July 1. The move arrives as Spain continues to seek a return to normalcy in the wake of the pandemic which killed more than 27,000 in the country.
Read more at Newsweek
