Parliament calls on Catalan government to ban bull-related events

Chamber passes resolution urging executive to implement ban after escaped bull injured 19 in recent festival

Vidreres bullring where 'correbous' were held (Gerard Vilà/ACN)
Vidreres bullring where 'correbous' were held (Gerard Vilà/ACN) / ACN

ACN | Barcelona

September 27, 2019 10:28 AM

Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday urging the government to ban events involving bulls, such as the tradition known as 'correbous' (running bulls through the streets).

The resolution comes after 19 people were injured at the beginning of September in the town of Vidreres, after a bull escaped during a festival and had to be shot dead by local police.

Parliament banned bullfighting in Catalonia in 2010, with the ban coming into effect in 2012. However, the ban did not cover events such as correbous, in which the bulls are not killed.

The motion put forward by the leftwing Catalunya en Comú-Podem party made reference to the ban, calling on the government to take "the next step" and ban other bull-related events.

Yet, the government's action against bullfighting has proved controversial in the past, after pressure groups in Spain urged the Spanish parliament to revoke the Catalan ban.

Spain's Constitutional Court overturned the ban on in 2016, with the high court ruling that autonomous communities only have the power to regulate bullfighting rather than ban it.