Spain's top court overturns Catalonia bullfighting ban

By Alyssa McMurtry

MADRID (AA) - Spain's top court has struck down Catalonia’s ban on bullfighting, according to an official statement released Thursday.

The Constitutional Court voted eight to three to overrule the prohibition on the grounds that it prevented the government from protecting the traditional spectacle.

"Bullfighting has an unquestionable presence in the social reality of our country,” and like "any other cultural expression," bullfighting “can form part of the cultural heritage that permits the intervention of the state in order to preserve it," the court said.

The last bullfight in the northeastern region of Catalonia took place in September 2011, after lawmakers passed legislation to put an end to the public spectacle.

The ban was celebrated by animal advocates, who claimed that the spectacle caused great suffering to the animals involved and was a barbaric remnant of the past.

However, some cultural critics pointed out that the ban was politically tinged—with the autonomous region of Catalonia using their anti-bullfighting stance to assert their differences from the rest of Spain.

Critics in the autonomous government of Catalonia are now calling the Constitutional Court’s decision politically motivated.

"It’s clear that the Constitutional Court never misses an opportunity to attack the legitimacy of the Catalan parliament," Lluis Salvado, the treasury secretary, told Spanish media Thursday.