Bloodless Mallorca: Campaigning against bullfighting

What do Palma, Alcúdia, Muro and Inca have in common? They are the only municipalities in Mallorca where bullfights are staged. Felanitx can, theoretically, be added to this list, but as its bullring - La Macarena - has been closed for some five years because it is considered a safety risk, it isn't in practice; there is no bullfight in Felanitx as a result.

But were La Macarena in a safe condition, the chances are that the council there would allow the staging of bullfights once more. Felanitx is not a town in Mallorca which has declared itself to be anti-bullfighting. There are few towns which have made such a declaration but the number has grown swiftly just recently; doubled in fact. Over the past month, councils in Artà, Sencelles and now Santa María del Camí, have all passed motions against bullfighting. There had only been three - Costitx, which has had a policy since 2006, Esporles and Puigpunyent, since 2009 - now there are the six, and the number may well increase.

A town which will not be added to the list is Pollensa. A motion declaring the town anti-bullfighting was defeated. The largest group, the Partido Popular, got the support of the councillor Puerto Pollensa party (the UMP) councillor, while the PP's partner in coalition, El Pi, abstained. This was enough for the motion to fail, one that had been supported by the Alternativa, PSOE, Més and the Esquerra Republicana. It was a case, therefore, of left versus right, and the right won the day.

The motions that have been brought at different council meetings are the consequence of a campaign called Mallorca Sense Sang (Mallorca without blood or bloodless Mallorca). It was started three months ago by the animal-rights groups AnimaNaturalis and CAS International (CAS stands for Comité Anti Stierenvechten, and is Dutch, based in Utrecht). The campaign has thus far got 15,000 signatures from those who want bullfighting banned in Mallorca.

The likelihood of there being such a ban is remote. For the moment. Though bullfighting isn't a subject which neatly divides along right and left political lines, it more or less does. The PP nationally is firmly in favour of bullfighting, and one of its supporters is the prime minister Mariano Rajoy. So much in favour is it that it supports the drive to have bullfighting given protected status on account of its cultural heritage. It also, because it interferes with the national broadcaster RTE, succeeded in getting bullfighting back on television screens; it had been dropped a few years ago when PSOE was in power.

A ban in Mallorca isn't completely out of the question. If the campaign were to become a campaign of signature collection for a petition for popular legislation, and if enough signatures were collected, the regional government would be obliged to consider passing law to ban the bullfight. This is what happened in Catalonia. There were sufficient signatures and the government there, arguably because it suited its political purposes to attack a symbol of Spanish nationalism, accepted that parliament should consider a ban, and parliament duly obliged.

Mallorca and the Balearics are likely to see a different political make-up after next spring's elections. At present, the regional government wouldn't pass a ban, even were there enough signatures to compel it to consider doing so. The situation may well be very different next year.

In the meantime, the town councils which have declared their opposition to bullfighting have done so in a symbolic fashion rather than a practical one. It would be almost unimaginable that any of Palma, Alcúdia, Muro or Inca (or indeed Felanitx) would follow suit, but again political changes in these towns might lead them to. Muro is a town that would be the most stubborn supporter of the bullfight. It has declared itself a town for the bullfight. The bullring, which was bought by the town hall three years ago, is used for training purposes as well as for the annual bullfight at the Sant Joan fiestas. It would take something major for Muro to reverse its policy, but that something major may just be in the making.