The French government is going to oppose the ban on bullfights throughout the country, since it considers that it is a tradition rooted in the south
The French National Assembly will debate on November 24 a bill to ban bullfighting throughout France, currently allowed “by tradition” in the bullfighting departments in the southeast and southwest of the country, near the Spanish border.
The bill has been presented by deputy Aymeric Caron, a member of the La Francia Insumisa group, the equivalent of Podemos in France. This deputy considers that the abolition of bullfighting throughout France will mean “a small step for the animal, a big step for humanity.”
However, fans of bullfights in France scored a first victory this Wednesday: the deputies of the Law Commission of the Assembly were against the ban on bullfights throughout the country by rejecting in a vote by show of hands the proposed law of La Francia Insumisa.
Caron, who considers that the bullfight has nothing of art, but that it is “torture”, described the rejection of his text by the Law Commission as “shame”. “A real vote will take place in the chamber with the group of deputies, who can still be up to it,” the deputy wrote on Twitter.
Despite its rejection in the Law Commission, the bill to abolish bullfights will be debated and voted on next week in the chamber, but it has little chance of being approved.
The French government is going to oppose the ban on bullfights throughout the country, as it considers that it is a deeply rooted tradition in the south of France. French MPs, regardless of their political color, are divided on the issue.
Caron wants to modify the French Penal Code. French law prohibits animal abuse and punishes those who practice it, publicly or not, to three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. However, in the seventh paragraph of article 521-1 of the Criminal Code it is established that these provisions “are not applicable to bullfights when an uninterrupted local tradition can be invoked” nor to cockfighting, authorized in the north of France and in some French overseas territories.
The anti-bullfighting deputy argues that the justification that it is “an uninterrupted local tradition” in the south of France is false. “The bullfight is not a French tradition at all, but a Spanish one. He arrived in France in 1853, to please Eugenia de Montijo, Andalusian wife of Napoleon III », explains Caron.
For this French deputy, “the bullfight is barbaric” and “no excuse is acceptable for not abolishing it.” According to Caron, when voting, French deputies should ask themselves if they are “those who support torture and the public execution of an animal or those who stand up against what must be called barbarism.”
“Away from any political consideration, I support Aymeric Caron’s bill to abolish bullfighting, this abominable practice and scandalous suffering,” Brigitte Bardot, former French actress and animal rights activist, wrote on Twitter.
According to data from the Union of French Bullfighting Cities (UVTF), 440,000 people attended bullfighting shows in France last season. Festivities were held in 56 French bullfighting cities and 836 bulls were fought.
77% of the French are in favor of banning bullfighting in France, according to an Ifop poll conducted in February. On the other hand, 71% of the inhabitants of the French bullfighting cities (Arles, Bayonne, Béziers, Dax, Mont-de-Marsan, Nimes and Vic-Fezensac) are in favor of maintaining the bullfights, according to another Ifop poll carried out in June in the south of France.