In a city that counts the days of the year according to the time left until the start of the Sanfermines, any debate around the festivities can be delicate, even more so if the discussion concerns emblematic elements such as the bulls or bullfights. In recent years, however, it seems that the debate on a hypothetical reformulation of the festival in the medium term, giving a return to the bullfighting issue, is beginning to knock on the door, putting on the table issues that can be implemented until a few years ago: are Sanfermines possible without bullfights? And without running of the bulls? Can running of the bulls be held without the bulls being sacrificed?
The debate has visited the Pamplona town hall these days, from where the chupinazo will be launched in 50 days. He has done it, yes, with a certain political whiff. UPN has brought to the City Council, governed by EH Bildu, a statement against the decision of the Government of Spain to eliminate the National Bullfighting award. From there, he has sought to get the rest of the parties to take a position on the bullfighting issue and has repeated the move in the Parliament of Navarra.
“They will have to come out of their burrows and position themselves,” said regionalist councilor Juan José Echeverría. The mayor of Pamplona, Joseba Asiron, has shown that he knows how to fight a controversy that can be very controversial in the city. “I have always said that the bulls are an inherent element of the Sanfermines and that if we ever want to change this, we would have to do a total rethinking, from top to bottom, of the festivities,” he expressed to the media. The question is how long this debate can be postponed in the official sphere, taking into account that the questioning of the party may gain weight and assuming that there are conflicting positions in all parties.
Iván Pastor is a member of the Donibane club and actively participates in the San Fermín festivities. This 30-year-old journalist, however, is also a member of the Iruñea Antitaurina collective: “When it is said that the debate should be addressed, in the end they are throwing the ball out, although it is true that the door is beginning to open a little. In any case, the debate must be raised from the supporters’ clubs, from each one of them. “You can see some movement, but it is still green.”
The group to which he belongs is “a supporter of Sanfermines without animal torture.” “The highest degree of torture occurs in the plaza, where they torture and kill animals. Bullfights and the running of the bulls cannot be put on the same level, even if the bull suffers stress in the bullfight itself. Both debates must be separated. What unites us is that we are against bullfighting and we believe that the Sanfermines should be reformulated by eliminating bullfights.”
Miguel Izu, a 63-year-old jurist, considers that the “debate reached everywhere years ago,” although “in Navarra it only interests two minorities: the fans and those against bullfighting.” Izu declares himself “moderately fond,” he even presided over bullfights during his time as a councilor for Izquierda Unida and believes that “the majority of society, beyond those minorities, is comfortable with the party as it is.”
“It is possible that in the future they will be reformulated, nothing is forever and everything changes. I am willing to debate, as I am doing, and my position is that they should remain as they are. Of course, I don’t think a bullfight without bullfights is possible. Economically it is unviable. At most a cow release could be held, but not a running of the bulls like the ones we know in Pamplona. “The running of the bulls and the bullfights go together,” he says.
In the short term, he predicts “a debate like the current one,” which “will hardly have a decisive political impulse behind it.”
Rakel Arloj, president of the Federation of Peñas, on the other hand, perceives a change and believes that the debate is making headway. “I can talk about what I hear in my environment. Yes, I think it is a hot topic. “I hear more and more that people want alternative plans, something that didn’t happen a few years ago,” she says.
Curiously, the poster chosen by popular vote to represent the Sanfermines this year does not depict a moment of the running of the bulls, but rather the departure of the bagpipers to the Town Hall square after the chupinazo.
In fact, in six of the last ten Sanfermines posters no elements related to the bullfight or bullfights appear, something unthinkable, for example, in the 70s, when without exception elements related to the bullfight were chosen as an attraction for the festivities. . It may be something casual or it may mean that bullfighting festivities are losing weight as a central element of the festival. Another thing will be that consensus can be built around a reformulation of bullfighting celebrations that, for the moment, continue to fill both the bullfighting route and the Bullring.
