While the bill to ban bullfighting in France must be studied this Thursday in the National Assembly, opponents of the practice hope to win their case. And judge that it goes in the direction of history, without real consequences.
After 30 years of fighting, it’s time for “great hope” for anti-bullfighting. This Thursday, November 24, 2022, a bill is being debated in the National Assembly aimed at banning the practice wherever it is authorized in France. A text carried by Aymeric Caron, Nupes deputy from Paris. If the ambition of the anti-speciesist came to a halt on Wednesday, November 16 in the law commission with an unfavorable opinion from the deputies on the subject, the opponents of bullfighting do not want to lose hope. “It sent the wrong signal, but it has no consequences”, tempers Sophie Maffre-BaugePresident of the Biterrois Liaison Committee for the Abolition of Bullfighting (Colbac).
Two out of three French people from the south-west opposed to bullfighting
In Béziers, one of the main places of French bullfighting, four bullfights are organized each year, around August 15, on the occasion of the feria. To which must be added two novilladas (corridas with bullfighters and younger bulls), as well as a bullfighting gala in the fall. So many opportunities for this association, and others, to express their opposition to the practice. But the rallies only bring together a few dozen people, as the organizations themselves acknowledge. “Symbolically, there is no need for us to be 50,000. It is more symbolic. It is not the number that counts, but the number that we represent”, explains Thierry Helypresident of the Federation of struggles for the abolition of bullfights (Flac).
This activist refers to the percentage of French people opposed to bullfighting. 87% according to a Ifop poll commissioned by the Anti-Bullfighting Alliance in September 2021, 74% according to this same institutefor the Sunday newspaper, in November 2022. An opposition that falls to 69% in the southwest details the first survey. The second does not provide precise geographical details. In the southwest, 1 in 3 people therefore still have an interest in the practice.
“Imagine if we had kept all the cruel traditions…”
Through their actions, the anti-bullfights want to “make our cause visible, occupy the media field and put pressure on the municipality”, adds Sophie Maffre-Baugé. A town hall which, in Béziers, ardently defends the practice, despite a first city councilor, Robert Ménard… vegetarian, who “hates” bullfighting, but who “defends it tenaciously because it is part of this culture of the South” (France Blue Herault, August 13, 2022) and always present in the front row to watch the races. An antagonism that the activist does not fail to underline. “Everyone is aware that it is cruel, barbaric, but no one has the courage to offend the bullfighting world”, comments the one who has been involved in the anti-bullfighting fight since, young, she “realized what happened.” “It’s a small but influential environment. They are business leaders, players in the economy. They are quite important and politicians do not dare to go against the power they can represent”, she continues. “Robert Ménard wants to protect the notables, influential people, who go to the arenas”, adds Thierry Hély.
The politicians elected in the strongholds of French bullfighting (Nîmes, Arles, Béziers, Dax, Mont-de-Marsan) spare the bullfighting world and finance it, proudly brandishing the argument of tradition, inaudible among the antis. “That there is a history of bullfighting, a tradition, we do not deny it. But this is not a justification. Bullfighting is a subject that divides. It is not a subject that brings people together, it is a culture that involves animal suffering”, laments Sophie Maffre-Baugé. And Thierry Hély to engage: “Imagine if we had kept all the cruel traditions! Before, we gathered to burn the cats. There was also the torture of the wheel. They have all disappeared.”
For anti-bullfighting associations, bullfighting is “a unique case in the world.” “Bullfighting is the only case where 10,000 people witness the slow agony of an innocent animal that didn’t ask for anything”, comments Thierry Hély. He adds: “For me, it’s the last vestige of the circus games, at the time of Rome where animal blood, and sometimes human blood, flowed with an uncompassionate crowd, in an aestheticized spectacle.” “How can we tolerate such acts of cruelty, morally and ethically accept such suffering to entertain?” Sophie Maffre-Baugé gets carried away.
Parliamentary filibuster on the bill
Thus, it appeared incomprehensible for these defenders of the animal cause that the text of Aymeric Caron was rejected by the law commission. “We are very surprised. We have confidence in politics. We say to ourselves that from the moment when there is a very strong desire to abolish and that cruelty is proven, we say to ourselves that such a practice should not have no difficulty in being abolished in 2022”, regrets the Biterroise. “It’s a first battle that we have not won, but there are other stages”, philosopher Thierry Hély.
This Thursday, the bill should be discussed, without guarantee that it cannot be voted on. Before this text, three others will be the subject of discussions in the hemicycle and a large number of amendments must be studied each time. On the subject of bullfighting alone, 567 were filed. Parliamentary obstruction is denounced in the ranks of La France insoumise, because at midnight, the session will be closed, and cannot be extended. If it is not submitted to a vote, the bill will be rejected. sine die. “We are very moderately optimistic”, recognizes Thierry Hély, from Flac.
“We can do without bullfighting without economic damage”
If deputies (only LFI deputies signed Aymeric Caron’s text, only one being elected on bullfighting land, Michel Sala, in Alès in the Gard) today want to put an end to bullfighting, it goes without saying that the arenas are less full. Professionals in the sector admit it when taking stock at the end of the ferias: small but constant declines are recorded each year. Difficult to bring together 10,000 people now, except when the greatest matadors of the moment come. A slow and undeniable death? Not so sure for the antis, who want to write in stone the ban on bullfighting. “We must legislate because if it dies alone, it can also be reborn from its ashes. They say that it would not be acceptable, but we do not have the courage to abolish it”, stings Sophie Maffre-Baugé.
In the bullfighting world, the sword that hangs over bullfighting above all raises fears of economic difficulties for an entire sector, starting with the breeders of fighting bulls. However, even if “it is necessary to look into the economic reconversion of the actors of bullfighting”, concedes the activist, the latter “would not be in danger since the breeders have other activities in parallel because the only breeding of the bull of combat is not profitable”, points out the Biterroise. The two representatives also affirm that all bullfighting plazas are in deficit. “If there was not this moral and financial support from the municipality, there would be no bullfighting,” says Sophie Maffre-Baugé.
Beyond bullfighting, attendance at ferias could also suffer from the end of the races according to aficionados. Argument refuted by opponents. “When they say that ferias bring in millions of profits, they confuse feria and bullfighting. On the last Nîmes feria, 4% went to the arenas. We can do without bullfighting without economic damage. It’s the feria which generates economy”, slice Thierry Hély. For Sophie Maffre-Baugé, this could even have the opposite effect and “bring more people back to the ferias.”