"Yes to bullfighting" against "corrida basta": defenders and opponents of bullfighting mobilized on Saturday across France, before a vote by the National Assembly on a bill to abolish this practice.

From Dax to Béziers via Auch or Bayonne, towns with a bullfighting tradition, supporters of bullfighting, supported by many elected officials from all sides, have made themselves heard to defend their "heritage" and their "cultural wealth" in the face of the bill carried by Aymeric Caron, deputy for Paris of the Ecological Revolution for the Living (REV) party affiliated with LFI.

Its examination is scheduled for Thursday in the hemicycle after its rejection on Wednesday in committee.



Under umbrellas pasted with posters "#YES to bullfighting", nearly a thousand people (800 according to the police, 1,500 according to the organizers) marched from the town hall of Dax to the sub-prefecture to drop off a motion, common to bullfighting towns, addressed to the President of the Republic.

“There is no one way of life in Paris that must prevail everywhere.

France is a mosaic of cultures that must be respected,” said Senator Éric Kerrouche (PS) in front of local peñas (bullfighting associations).

"Nobody is forcing anyone to go see a bullfight", estimated in Mont-de-Marsan, where around 300 people were gathered, Lionel Pinsolle, president of the Bullfighting Circle of Tyrosse.

After the bullfight, he assures us, "they will want to tackle hunting, fishing, force-feeding (ducks with foie gras, editor's note)".

"Animal Totalitarianism"

“Stop animalist totalitarianism,” read a sign in the crowd.

For the mayor of the Landes village of Saint-Perdon (1,700 inhabitants) Jean-Louis Darrieutort, "bullfighting maintains a real social, intergenerational link in the villages" and constitutes an economic sector, from breeding to the organization of festivals, that must be protected.

In Auch (Gers), they were 250 gathered in front of the statue of d'Artagnan, including the deputies Jean-René Cazeneuve (Renaissance) and David Taupiac (PS).

Present in the rally in Bayonne, with some 350 aficionados, the French bullfighter Julien Lescarret denounced “an obscurantism of the extremes” and demanded the withdrawal of the bill with a scathing “Leave us alone”, under cheers.

Aymeric Caron crystallized the dissatisfaction: “Parisian deputy bobo disinterested in our local identities” for the mayor of Dax Julien Dubois, or “great defender of mosquitoes and rats” for Bernard Mula, president of the Biterrois bullfighting clubs, present at the rally of Beziers.

"Fuck bullfighting"

In several cities, opponents of bullfighting have recreated a spectacle linked to death to say, as in Lyon where they were around fifty according to the Rhône prefecture, that "we cannot have fun around a grave". .

In Paris, in front of nearly 200 activists from a dozen animal associations and parties, four activists carrying horns, squatting and head bowed, framed a young woman disguised as a bullfighter and carrying real banderillas.

In Montpellier, around twenty members of the Radical Anti-Bullfighting Committee (CRAC) set up a crime scene, surrounded by yellow tape, with fake blood, harpoons, banderillas and three fake bags of corpses on the ground.

"I don't need to see a bullfight to know what's going on, just as you don't need to rape to know that it causes victims," ​​said Cyril Vaucelle, project manager at CRAC. .

“The animal feels pain and is having a terrible time.

It's not moral, "said AFP in Lyon Alexandre Godard, president of the local collective for animal protection (CPA), denouncing the fact that" 63 French cities "still organize bullfights.

In Lille, there were around sixty opponents, including Margaux Verdier, defining themselves as "vegan and antispeciesist" and wearing a "fuck bullfighting" T-shirt.

“Many of us think that it is crazy to believe that bullfighting is a culture, it is barbarism, torture”, was indignant this teleconsultant.

Demonstrations by opponents were announced this weekend in around forty cities.

Company

The bullfighting cities are up in arms against the proposal to ban bullfighting

Company

Bullfighting: Can we still defend bullfighting today?

  • Company

  • bullfight

  • Bullfighting

  • Mobilization

  • Aymeric Caron