Bulls and Politics

International coverage of the recent banning of bullfighting in Catalonia has focused on animal rights whilst largely ignoring the real domestic issues behind the story.

European politics is too grey to make the news in Australia often. Spain though appears to be such an unimportant country that Catalonian Politicians must have thought they needed add some colour to attract attention. 

So blood red it is. Very appropiate for the moment.

The 28 July 2010 decision of Catalans to ban bullfighting is a joke.

Catalonia, whose capital Barcelona is Spain's second largest city, has now followed the lead of the Canary Islands, which made the practice illegal in 1991. But the motives of the Catalonians differ from those of the Canaries.

Catalonian politicians claim the banning to be pro Europe and against animal torture. However, ironically, two days after the ban was signed, socialist Catalonian president Jose Montilla, agreed to preserve a far more brutal so-called “fiesta” – Correbous – a XIX century practice. In this ancient practice a bull is set fire to its corns and suffers incredible pain for several hours.

The prohibition, which was celebrated by animal rights activists around the world, took place one month after Spain's Constitutional Court struck down several articles of Catalonia's Autonomic Constitution. This expanded the already significant powers of regional self-rule.

Now,how many articles have you read about the Catalonian Constitution? One more region of Europe trying to get more self-rule is no news.

Spain, as happens all over Europe, is the union of peripheral nationalities into one Nation and that has its consequences in the present.

It's not only the Irish or the Basques, who called the attention on themselves by killing for the purpose of independence. It happens all over Europe. There's The Netherlands with the Northern independentists of Frisland. There's Belgium with the French and Dutch and Flemish altogether.

If we were to listen to every historical nation in Europe, the continent would turn up into a puzzle of a thousand pieces.

Let's face it; it is only recently Europeans are actually starting to call themselves Europeans. Not so long ago they would say I'm French, Dutch or Italian; and even though you still have that resemblance, its citizens are beginning to identify with the idea of Europe.

The same phenomena happens at national levels.

And yet it is still a political issue to find the way to keep everybody happy, to acknowledge identities without loosing the central lead. One of the biggest issues all over Europe is, indeed, what regions-countries should regulate and what should the central government be in charge of.

The Catalonian Constitution is a big hope for the question of governmental structure within the EU. It could be the answer for so many gaps on the Lisbon Treaty with respect to economy and designation of duties.

The reason for its denial is a simple but powerful word: nation. In its preamble, Catalan Constitution uses the term nation to describe Catalonia.

However, the existence of diverse national identities is one of the reasons that make Spain, along with other European countries, unique as well as dangerously unstable. Terrorist group ETA is a clear example of this.

Spain needs to move on without paying attention to nonsenical fears. Fear, as well, of other autonomies to see how the improvement achieved in the last decades may decline. Acknowledgement of reality does not mean the disentanglement of the country.

One of the main obstacles towards the Catalonian Constitution is taxation.

Currently, Catalonia gives to the central Government 8.04 per cent. If we have a look at the numbers, Health System aside (which is between 10 and 12 per cent of the GDP), the Treasury administers only 19 per cent of national resources.

If we are to compare this with, say, Australia, whose Commonwealth administers 33 per cent, we will see how independent regions are in Spain.

But even if the Catalonian Constitution can serve as an example to other European regions, a crucial aspect is forgotten in the text: solidarity.

Catalonia pretends to lower its taxation contribution between 5 and 6 percent, although its real objective is even lower – 4 per cent. This is a shockingly small percentage.

Spanish President, socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, recently promised he would support a future vote on Catalonian Constitution.

The bullring is ready for the fight.

What we still need to know is who is the bull and who the matador? Eleven months from now, the Catalan Constitution will be taken to Parliament vote again.

Europe is expectant.

Marta Conejo Sobrino is a Masters student of journalism at the University of Sydney thanks to the European Talentia Scholarship. She previously majored in Political Communication on a Masters of journalism at the Complutense University, Madrid; presenting her project of thesis on the Bolognan Treaty.