Spain ends National Bullfighting Award amid cultural changes

Spain’s Culture ministry announced in May its intention to cancel the award, which had been given annually since 2013. ‘Society’s values and feelings towards bullfighting have evolved,’ the government said.

Spain’s Ministry of Culture has abandoned the National Bullfighting Award, a prize that was given annually to individuals or organisations from the world of bullfighting.
The demise of the prize, which was created in 2011 and first awarded in 2013, was announced in May by Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun. His department refused to organise this year’s edition and then began the procedure to withdraw the honour definitively
The order was published Friday in the official journal.
‘Society’s values and feelings about bullfighting have been evolving,’ the ministry argues in the text.
The culture department says that some of these events ‘are rejected by broad sectors of society as an unacceptable form of violence against animals’.
Endowed with 30,000 euros, it was part of the list of national prizes that the Spanish government awards annually to outstanding individuals and organisations in different artistic disciplines, such as literature, photography, music or fashion design.
Before adopting the decision, the ministry carried out a consultation to gather citizens’ opinion. According to Spanish media, more than 90% of the comments received supported the withdrawal of the award.
In May, the Minister of Culture pointed out that only 1.9% of the population attends bullfighting events, according to the latest data from the government’s Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices in Spain.
However, bullfighting supporters claim these figures refer to 2021-2022, when there were still COVID-19 restrictions affecting all cultural activities in general.
Prior to the pandemic, in 2018-2019, around 8% of the population had attended bullfighting events in the previous year. The first data, from 2006-2007, showed a percentage of 9.8%.
In any case, the official statistics refer to spectacles such as the famous corridas – 412 in 2022 -, in which a bullfighter faces the animal in a bullring, and other events such as rejoneo, in which he mounts a horse.
There are other popular festivities involving bulls, such as those held in many towns during the summer, for which no precise data are available.
This is the case of the bous al carrer, held in the Valencian Community region, in which a bull is released into an enclosed space and assistants, who dare, enter to get its attention and run away when it approaches.
The Valencian region held the most gatherings of this kind in 2022; with 8702 events according to the ministry’s Statistics on Bullfighting Affairs. In the whole country, 16,868 were held, including different modalities.
The conservative Popular Party, the main opposition, said it will reinstate the National Bullfighting Award if it returns to government.
Additional sources • elDiario.es, EFE