In decline for a few years, vilified by part of the Spanish company, where the” animalism ” is gaining ground, privileged target of the training of the radical left Podemos (the national power in coalition with the socialist Pedro Sanchez), the bullfighting could be encorner by the Covid-19. While the season runs between march and October in Spain – the rest of the year in a part of Latin America, most of the bullfights that have already been cancelled : only a few dozen have had, or will have, a place this season 2020, out of a total of some 1 521 festejos, among which 369 are of the bullfights, the remainder corresponding to spectacles bullring in all of Spain.
according To the national Union of the picadores and banderilleros Spanish, the Unpbe, 54 000 jobs are highly in danger, 160 000 if one takes into account the additional activities, including the preparation and transport of the bulls – the iberian race, who fight in the arenas. “The year is lost, since the large fairs (Madrid, Valencia, Seville, san Sebastian…) have been suspended, or will be,” sums up the archers from nîmes Simon Casas, president of the national Association of organisers of performances bullring, the Anoet, and president, among others, the bullring of Madrid, the Mecca world of bullfighting.
Podemos, the coup de grace
The biggest losers are many : bullfighters who intended to blow up this year, the members of the cuadrillas, that is to say, the banderilleros, the picadores, and the mozos, and, still more, the breeders. In the arenas, we torée animals of 4 to 5 years of age (3 years for the novilladas), each of them assuming a heavy investment, which oscillates between 4 000 and 5 000 euros, and that, if it is not used in a bullfight, directly to the slaughterhouse, where the breeder can not take more than 10 % of the anticipated profit. However, during this time, the maintenance of the bulls in the nature involves heavy costs and food handling. According to the Anoet, many companies that have made a large investment in advertising, promotion, or management may never recover their money.
at the same time, the sector as a whole bullfighting trembles in the face of the central government, not conducive to the “Fiesta nacional” (the name given to bullfighting since the franco regime) and that for the moment does not envisage state support for this sector to the brink of ruin. Breeders, for example, could lose this year’s 77 million euros. The fears are all the more strong as Podemos, the radical left in coalition with the socialists, defends openly the ideology animaliste and borst bullfighting as a tradition from another age “. To this we must add the mistrust proselyte of the nationalists in Catalonia have banned bullfighting since 2010 (one of The Canary islands did in 1991) and that seek to abolish all bullfighting in the villages of the region. A few days ago, the bullfighter in seville, Pablo Aguado, one of the glories rising, warned : “Traditionally, the world tauromachique is divided. If we unite now, we can resist. “
