Alert, sensitive subject. Since the time he has been patient in the Chamber, the deputy Aymeric Caron will finally be able to bring to committee a proposal to ban bullfighting. Bullfighting is an “exception that no longer has any place to exist”, a “torture” of bulls, judges former journalist Aymeric Caron, elected deputy for Paris in June. He wishes to modify the Penal Code which already punishes animal abuse, but whose sanctions provided for in article 521-1 “are not applicable to bullfights when an uninterrupted local tradition can be invoked”.
And the deputy LFI hopes to add by amendment the prohibition of cockfights still authorized in the North or certain overseas territories, so that the wives of bullfighters are not the only ones to sleep on their two ears. But his proposal is causing embarrassment in the political arena. Are the groups so many places without exits, or will the freedom to vote be given to the deputies? “It is a democratic test that will take place. We will see if the deputies are really free or if they will give in to pressure from lobbies, ”attacks the animal rights activist.
The government for a maintenance
Sensitive, the subject divides the macronists. In July 2021, when she was not yet president of the Renaissance deputies, Aurore Bergé, wondering if this world was serious, had signed a platform to ban bullfighting, deemed “barbaric”. Conversely, the elected representative of the Gers in the paper suit Jean-René Cazeneuve is directly opposed to the banning of this practice present in his territory. “It will disappear on its own, there are fewer and fewer of them. There is no point in banning it and humiliating people for whom these are traditions, ”he argues. “After bullfighting, it will be foie gras, barbecue, snails, oysters: where do you stop animal abuse? We know the animal Caron. We know it’s a first fight, ”he says.
In the name of defending a “cultural tradition” in the South-West and around the Mediterranean, the government intends to hit hard on the neck of the proposal of the LFI deputy. The Secretary of State in charge of Rurality Dominique Faure is announced on the bench of ministers on November 24, rather than the Keeper of the Seals Eric Dupond-Moretti, passionate about bullfighting and therefore more divisive.
After minimum wage and abortion
Division on the far right also between RN deputy Julien Odoul, ready to vote for the ban, and his colleague Emmanuel Taché de la Pagerie, on the side of acrobats having fun around a grave. Their boss Marine Le Pen, who has made the fight against animal abuse one of her markers, has been proposing for several years to ban bullfighting for minors. On the LR side, “there are quite a few of us in the group” to “say our attachment to this bullfighting tradition”, notes the leader of the right-wing deputies Olivier Marleix.
Under these conditions, the text has little chance of succeeding, especially since its full examination in the hemicycle is still uncertain on 24 November. After proposals such as the minimum wage at 1,600 euros or the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution, it is indeed in fourth position in the “niche” LFI, a day reserved for a minority group, with a closing of the debates at midnight . “We still have to have social first in our niche! “Assumes an elected LFI, skeptical about the ban on bullfighting.
The bill will spark protests this weekend. On Saturday, elected officials from all walks of life and aficionados will defend bullfighting in several bullfighting towns. Animal protection associations, on the other hand, promise demonstrations against this practice on Saturday and Sunday, including “an action with a strong visual impact” in Paris.