Uribes maintains the position of not granting any specific aid to bullfighting and has pointed out the City Councils and the Autonomous Communities as the administrations in charge of mitigating the financial losses of the sector.
After three months ignoring and “forgetting” to mention it when talking about cultural industries, finally José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes has mentioned bullfighting in the Ministry of Culture as the only result of bullfighting supporters pressure.
Different bullfighting media have emphasized that Uribes has included bullfighting "in the Crea fund", a credit line of 40 million for "companies dedicated to fine arts", included in the Royal Decree Law 17/20. But what is the "CREA" fund? They are loans that the companies will have to pay back, they should not be considered as aids or at least not at the level that the bullfighters were asking for. Moreover, companies related to bullfighting cannot be excluded from these loans as they are part of the cultural field companies from an administrative point of view.
Concerning unemployment assistance, whether banderilleros, picadors, and other workers will be able to apply for the aid remains unclear, unlike discontinued workers in film, theatre and other activities.
Aid will be provided by autonomous communities, provincial delegations and local councils
As we announced last May 23rd, first payments for the bullfighting sector bailout is already arriving through the Autonomous Communities, and it is to be expected that it will be totally inevitable that aid will be allocated, especially generous in those administrations where parties supporting bullfighting are in government. From AnimaNaturalis we are analysing the current situation in order to detect any type of specific aid that may be destined to the bullfighting sector. These are the aids that are being planned, although at the moment none have been granted.
Castilla y Leon has agreed to provide direct aid of 1.1 million euros for fighting bull farms, with a maximum of 5,000 euros per farm.
Castilla La Mancha has proposed to approve the 100% tax relief for the organization of bullfighting events to encourage them in this year affected by the coronavirus.
In the absence of official publication, it is expected that Comunidad Valenciana will allocate direct aid to each farmer for a value of 40 to 45 euros per animal.
Navarra will also dedicate direct aid to livestock, worth 90 euros per animal. For cattle farms with more than 500 animals "the aid would be modulated" and those with less than 10 animals would be excluded from this payment.
Extremadura has also committed to the bull farms but so far has not transcended how much aid will amount. The support measures will become effective once Brussels approves the Autonomous Communities to make changes to the current Rural Development Programme.
The Government of Andalucia plans to approve a resolution in the Governing Council to provide the holding of bullfighting events in Andalusia within the framework of the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19, by reducing the costs of the festivities organized in second and third bullrings. This regulation is still in the draft phase and would be temporary and will be approved as a Decree-Law on June 2.
Teruel Provincial Council allocates 60,000 euros to the fighting bulls breeders belonging the province, to cover current costs in terms of food, veterinary care or other, with a budget of 60,000 euros. "We are not giving money to encourage and promote bullfighting, we are offering an aid so that farmers do not have to take their animals to slaughterhouses and what we are going to ask them is to justify this aid with the feeding of the animals," said Alberto Izquierdo, vice president of the provincial institution.
In May, the Madrid City Council approved a 25% rebate on the full amount of the 2020 Tax on Economic Activities (IAE) for certain cultural and sporting events, including bullfighting.
What are we doing from AnimaNaturalis?
Since the first bullfighting festivals were cancelled in March, AnimaNaturalis started a campaign to pressure not to support bullfighting. More than 140,000 people have already joined the petition, and the same amount of mails have been sent to the Ministry of Culture. The organizations CAS International, FLAC, No Corrida, AVATMA and ANIMAL, have also joined and we are fighting together against the aid.
Furthermore, from AVATMA, AnimaNaturalis, CAS International, Animal Guardians, La Tortura No es Cultura and Gladiadores por la Paz, we have contacted the Minister of Culture, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes, to ask that aid not be allocated to such a rejected sector, and to assess the possibility of returning bullfighting to the Home Department, which, from 2011 depends on the Ministry of Culture.
Examining the latest data from the Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices in Spain. 2018-2019, we have found out that bullfighting festivals are not the second entertainment in this country considering the audience, as bullfighting supporters say, but the tenth, behind football, cinema, monuments and archaeological sites, museums, contemporary and classical music concerts, exhibitions, theatre and art galleries. In fact, considering the interest among citizens, the bullfighting sector gets the lowest rated.
We will follow up all the procedures in benefit of bullfighting, and we are already organizing the next citizen movements.
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