The deputies, meeting in the Law Commission this Wednesday morning, spoke out against the ban on bullfighting in France. The text defended by LFI will be debated on November 24.
French deputies rejected this Wednesday in committee the ban on bullfighting, a text which divides all political camps and sparks demonstrations next weekend. Under the protests, the deputy of Paris Aymeric Caron, bearer of the proposal, immediately denounced the “big pressure from the lobbies”. Opening the debates, the former journalist, elected representative of insubordinate France (LFI, radical left), castigated the “barbarism” of bullfighting, a “hypocritical ceremony, where the supposedly honored animal is massacred with precision and refinement that borders on sadism”.
In a serious atmosphere, the deputy from Paris meticulously described the “execution” of the bull. He criticized pro-bullfighting elected officials for “electoralist maneuvers” to “not offend certain voters in bullfighting regions”. This unfavorable vote will not prevent its examination in the hemicycle on 24 November. The animal rights activist wants to modify the French 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 “.
The LFI deputy hopes to add by amendment the prohibition of cockfights still authorized in the North or certain overseas territories.
Foie gras and barbecue
His bill causes embarrassment in political groups. In the name of defending a “cultural tradition” in the Southwest and around the Mediterranean, the government intends to oppose it. 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. Dominique Faure went to the meeting of the Renaissance group on Tuesday to call not to “fall into the radicalism of the deputy” Caron, according to a parliamentary source. “We must not oppose emotion and attachment to the land,” she pleaded.
Sensitive, the subject divides the deputies of the Renaissance group, supporters of President Emmanuel Macron. In July 2021, when she was not yet president of the Renaissance deputies, Aurore Bergé had signed a platform to ban bullfighting, deemed “barbaric”. But in committee, MP Marie Lebec opposed the “radicality” of Aymeric Caron’s proposal. “What will be the next regional tradition that we will ban?” she warned. Conversely, the elected Gers Jean-René Cazeneuve is opposed frontally to the prohibition of this practice present in his territory. “After bullfighting, it will be foie gras, barbecue, snails, oysters: where do you stop animal abuse? We know the animal Caron. -he.
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, defender of bullfighting. 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.
Demonstrations this weekend
On the LR side, “there are enough 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 monthly minimum wage of 1600 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. “We must not take the people who want to do this the wrong way (…) there, it will be a bit binary”, fears this Insoumis deputy, even if he will vote for the text.
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. Customary of shock videos, the L214 association broadcast images of “laborious killing of bulls” during a bullfight in Brocas (Landes) on September 24 last night, to support the ban. “Apart from any political consideration”, Brigitte Bardot supported Aymeric Caron, with her foundation for the animal cause.