Will a bullfight really take place on July 15 in Pérols (Hérault)? Since Jean-Pierre Rico (New Center), the mayor of this village in the metropolis of Montpellier, announced his intention to host a novillada, twenty years after the last killing of a bull in its arenas , animal associations are seeing red.
But they will not be content to show their disapproval by distributing leaflets. It is, in fact, in the courts that the blow could take place: several associations, convinced of the illegality of this initiative, are studying the possibility of bringing the case to justice. According to the law, “the act of exercising serious abuse or committing an act of cruelty towards an animal” is prohibited in France, and punished by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros. Article 521-1 of the Penal Code only excludes from illegality “bullfights where an uninterrupted local tradition can be invoked”. In Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), Nîmes (Gard) or Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône), bullfights thus take place in the name of a continuous practice.
What is an “interrupted local tradition”?
If there are no bullfights, in the arenas of Pérols, for at least twenty years, the case is settled, for the associations? With regard to case law, “it’s not that simple”, responds to 20 minutes Claire Starozinski, the founder of the Anticorrida Alliance. To defend the return of bullfighting to Pérols, the National Observatory of Bullfighting Cultures (ONCT) rightly highlights, in a press release published on February 18, a whole bunch of decisions that weigh, in this fight between the pros and the anti-corridas. In 1990, in particular, the court of Tarascon noted that the term “local”, in article 521-1 of the Penal Code, is to be conceived “in a way extended to a geographical and human zone, and not in the strict sense of city , municipality or locality”.
This same interpretation notably enabled the commune of Floirac (Gironde) to escape a condemnation, after the organization of a bullfight, in 1993. of which Bordeaux is the capital, where [retrouve] (…) the persistence of a bullfighting tradition,” noted the Court of Appeal at the time. There is no doubt, for the ONCT: Pérols is at the heart of a territory where bullfighting is a long-lived tradition.
In Pérols, “there is a real aficion” for bullfighting
And even if there has not been a bullfight for a long time in this village, the simple fact that this culture exists, and that it is shared by a large number of inhabitants is enough to justify an “interrupted local tradition”. “. This is the meaning of several court decisions, since the 2000s. “It is enough that a sufficient number of Pérolians (…) go to see bullfighting shows in other nearby towns belonging to the same geographical area (…) or organize in Pérols cultural events around bullfighting so that the tradition is not interrupted with regard to case law, regardless of the time that has elapsed” since the last bullfight, assures the ONCT.
“It’s true, had indicated the mayor, Jean-Pierre Rico, to 20 minuteslast February 18, it had been a number of years since there had been a bullfight [dans la commune]. But there have been, for a long time. Also remained for a very long time, a party, the fiesta Campera, typically Spanish”. And, continued the elected official, in Pérols, “the members of the bullfighting club go to see bullfights in Arles, in Nîmes, in Spain. I also see it regularly. And often, I meet Péroliens there ”. There is a real “aficion” (passion) for bullfighting in his city, assured Jean-Pierre Rico. “Pérols is in his right to organize a novillada”, assures the ONCT.
A bullfighting culture in Pérols, “of course not! »
Despite fierce case law, Claire Starozinski is ready for the fight. “We are going to work to show that the Spanish bullfighting tradition is not alive in Pérols”, confides the president of the Anti-corrida Alliance. A petition is currently running with the inhabitants of the town, to bring together as many refractory people as possible when bullfighting returns to the arenas. A letter will be sent, in this sense, by the Anti-corrida Alliance, to each home of Pérols. “The notion of “uninterrupted local tradition”, it cannot be so elastic, deplores Claire Starozinski. Otherwise, we can go to Paris, like that! “Ah but him, he is next to him, who is next to him”, etc. »
In Pérols, “there is indeed a Camargue culture”, confides to 20 minutes Thierry Hély, president of the Federation of struggles for the abolition of bullfights (Flac), with many races, where the bulls are not killed. But a culture of Spanish bullfighting, with a killing, “of course not! “, assures this anti-bullfighting activist. Moreover, “we have echoes of Péroliens, who are very dissatisfied with the mayor’s project”. Between the pros and the anti-corridas, the duel promises to be tough.