Costa del Sol activists join anti-bullfighting protest in Madrid, calling for an end to Spain's 'national shame'

The PACMA animal rights politcal party in Spain has called on the European Union to “press” the Spanish government to “put an end” to bullfighting, an activity which it said is a “national shame” and which is rejected by the majority of the population.

A group from Fuengirola, Antitaurinos Animalistas, were among those who joined a protest march in Madrid on Saturday 16 September under the slogan Mission Abolition. The noisy PACMA-led march began at around 6pm from Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas and went via Calle Roberto Domingo, Avenida de Los Toreros, Calle Francisco Silvela and Calle Alcalá, before returning to the starting point, amid chants such as "bullfighting: national shame".

The president of PACMA, Javier Luna, has pointed out, in statements to Europa Press, that the "main" objective of the formation is the abolition of all bullfighting festivities held in Spain, from bullfights to events such as the 'bous a la mar', among others.

"Spanish society condemns them. There is a majority rejection of bullfighting,", Luna said, adding that this activity "is neither art nor culture".

The PACMA president called on the European Union to "put pressure on the Spanish government to put an end" to these activities involving bulls, so that Spain follows the example of other countries where these practices are being eliminated, and which have converted their bullrings into "cultural spaces".

The Portuguese lawmaker and spokesperson for the People, Animals and Nature party, Inés Sousa Rial, described the abolition of bullfighting as a question of "justice". "It is time in the 21st century to put an end to this kind of barbarity and torture, which is neither culture nor spectacle," she said.

"We must raise our humanitarian values and have compassion for animals," she added, highlighting the "emotional and psychological damage" that bullfighting events cause to children as they are "violent" activities.

Sousa also spoke of the need to support workers in the sector so that they can depend on other activities. "For example, we can go to see the bull in the open countryside, without suffering, with all its beauty and natural splendour," she said.

The demonstrators, most of who carried posters, and green flags with the slogan of the demonstration, called on the institutions not to subsidise this "cruelty" and to allocate the funds to animal shelters.