MPs in the French parliament's law commission have rejected calls for a ban on bullfighting. A full parliamentary vote on the issue is due to take place next week.
The issue has split the ruling coalition of President Emmanuel Macron and the biggest opposition party, the far-right National Rally.
A full vote on the issue is scheduled for 24 November, the first time the National Assembly will consider banning the traditional practice.
The draft law proposes modifying France's existing animal welfare law to remove exemptions for bullfights. Such events are permitted when they can be shown to be "uninterrupted local traditions".
Exemptions are granted in towns such as Bayonne and Mont-de-Marsan in south-west France, and along the Mediterranean coast including Arles, Beziers and Nimes.
"I think the majority of French people share the view that bullfights are immoral, a spectacle that no longer has its place in the 21st century," Aymeric Caron, the left-wing MP behind the attempt to ban bullfighting, told the French news agency AFP earlier this year.
Corrida : "Cette activité est aujourd'hui totalement en contradiction avec notre époque (...) c'est une séance de torture", affirme @CaronAymericoff. #CVR pic.twitter.com/weOkGWLosY
— LCP (@LCP) November 15, 2022
A poll by the Ifop survey group earlier this year supports Caron's claim, with 77 percent of respondents approving a ban, up from 50 percent in 2007.
But observers expect the bid to fail as MPs fear a backlash in rural areas and bullfighting heartlands where the practice is a cherished cultural tradition.
"The MP Caron, in a very moralising tone, wants to explain to us, from Paris, what is good or bad in the south," said the mayor of Mont-de-Marsan, Charles Dayot.
Bullfighting is "our identity, a living culture. Leave us alone with our traditions!" said Dayot, who is vice-president of the Union of French Bullfighting Towns.
MPs divided
Although the parliamentary leader of President Macron's Renaissance party, Aurore Bergé, signed an open letter calling for a ban on bullfighting last year, others in the party are fiercely opposed to the bill.
J'ai signé.
— Aurore Bergé (@auroreberge) August 1, 2021
Il y a des coutumes ou traditions auxquelles il est de notre responsabilité de mettre un terme. Nous avons su heureusement le faire dans bien des domaines.
Et qui peut justifier que des enfants accèdent à cette mise à mort ? @FBB_Officiel #Corrida https://t.co/YOgMV8D5id
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti is known to be a bullfighting fan, while some oppose the legislation on the grounds that it will deepen a widening urban-rural divide in France.
"It will disappear on its own. There is less and less of it," said Jean-René Cazeneuve, a ruling party MP elected from the southern Gers region. "There's no point banning it and humiliating people who see it as a tradition."
When running for president earlier this year, the National Rally's Marine Le Pen made animal welfare a plank of her manifesto, promising to give animals a constitutional status and declaring that "wanton mistreatment of animals was intolerable in our society".
She has proposed restricting bullfighting audiences to over-18s, while MP Julien Odoul, a member of Le Pen's parliamentary group, is expected to vote in favour of a blanket ban.
Planned protests
Judicial attempts to outlaw the practice have repeatedly failed, with courts routinely rejecting lawsuits lodged by animal rights activists, most recently in July 2021 in Nimes.
The draft law is likely to encourage protests this weekend. On Saturday, elected representatives from all sides as well as aficionados of the practice will defend bullfighting in several towns.
Animal protection organisations have promised demonstrations against the practice on Saturday and Sunday, including "an action with strong visual impact" in Paris.
The proposed law would also ban cock-fighting, which is permitted in some areas in northern France.
(with AFP)
