Spain to scrap its national bullfighting prize

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Spain will scrap its national prize for bullfighting due to its waning popularity and concerns over animal welfare, the country’s culture minister announced on Friday.

“We concluded that the majority of Spaniards are concerned about animal wellbeing. We don’t want to continue giving out a prize that awards animal abuse,” said Spain’s far-left Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun in an interview with Spanish broadcaster La Sexta.

The national bullfighting prize was first granted by the Spanish government under conservative leader Mariano Rajoy in 2013.

Besides the recognition, the annual award also comes with a €30,000 ($32,240) prize.

Urtasun told La Sexta that “animal torture” should not be given public money, especially since government statistics show that fewer than 2% of Spaniards went to see bullfighting in 2022.

In the past, the Spanish regions of the Canary Islands and Catalonia have even issued bans on bullfighting, though Catalonia’s was overturned in courts.

Government data shows that in Galicia, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, La Rioja, Ceuta and Melilla there was just one bullfighting event in 2022. In Catalonia, there were 54.

However, bullfighting does remain relatively popular in regions in some parts of Spain like Valencia and Madrid, according to the data.

Emiliano Garcia-Page, the Socialist leader of Castille-La Mancha, where bullfighting is also quite popular, even announced on Friday that he would create a regional bullfighting prize to substitute the national one.

The Madrid region’s head of environment and agriculture, Carlos Novillo, also announced new regional awards, slamming the central government for “attacking... and diluting the idea of Spain, so that it disappears.”

While bullfighting is deeply rooted in Spanish culture and history, it has been falling out of favor in modern times.

A 2020 poll by Electomania found that 46.7% of Spaniards said bullfighting should be legally banned; 34.7% said they do not like bullfighting but oppose a ban; and just 18.6% said that it is a tradition that should be upheld.