Catalonia Bans Bullfights in First Mainland Spanish Act Against Tradition

Regional lawmakers voted 68 to 55 for the ban, the speaker of the assembly said. The bill was the result of a popular initiative backed by 180,000 signatures, according to the Prou platform behind the initial campaign.

“Toreros” have fought half-ton bulls to the death in public arenas for centuries, inspiring writers including Ernest Hemingway. Opposition to the tradition has been growing in recent years, with a third of Spaniards favoring a bullfight ban, rising to a majority among those aged 18 to 29, according to a poll for El Mundo newspaper in 2007.

The number of bulls taken on in 2009 fell to 4,436 from 6,396 in 2003, according to data from the Interior Ministry. Catalans are less interested in bullfighting than many of their compatriots as 106 bulls faced the matador’s sword in the region last year, compared with more than 1,000 in Andalucia and almost 800 in Madrid.

The vote comes as Catalonia is battling Spanish institutions over its identity and two weeks after tens of thousands of people marched in Barcelona for the right to call the autonomous region a “nation.”