Aficionados have grown used to the corrida being under attack. Now, hard on the heels of Colombia’s decision to ban bullfighting from 2027, animalistas are making efforts in France and Mexico to restrict bullfighting in those countries too.

The latest two attempts are of very different weight and with very different chances of success. In France later this month, the country’s Senate will consider a proposal that is supposedly intended to prohibit children under the age of 16 from attending festejos (at present, under-12s can attend bullfights in France providing they are accompanied by an adult). I say “supposedly” because the intention of the new draft law is to punish a bullfight’s organisers and participants if it is found that under-16s are among the spectators. The punishments can include a fine of 45,000 euros and up to three years in prison. André Viard, president of France’s National Observatory of Taurine Culture, has commented, “Let's see who dares to put on bullfighting events with such a law […]: who is going to organise a novillada con picadores with the result that, if a minor sneaks in, the empresa is fined 45,000 euros, which is more or less the bullfight’s budget? And let's see who dares to give a puyazo, place some banderillas or deliver a swordthrust if, at the end of the day, you can receive that fine. They’re seeking to make it impossible for bullfights to take place, not by prohibiting them, but by creating penal conditions for the organizers and performers that fall under the law.”

The indications are that the proposal, which also puts forward similar restrictions for cockfights, will not receive sufficient support to go forward. According to Viard, it has come from a small group of senators and stands little chance of receiving the majority backing of the Senate. France’s taurine sector is well organised and well aware of the economic benefits that bullfights bring to the south of the country. France’s Union of Taurine Towns has argued that the proposed measures are “inappropriate in view of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, founded on the principle of non-discrimination; the constitutional principles of equality and secularism; the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; and the right to differentiation of territorial communities established by the organic law of 19 April 2021.” When a similar proposal to restrict bullfighting was last considered in September 2021, 19 senators voted in favour of the move and 246 against.

The situation in Mexico is much more concerning. There, the country’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, commenting on the introduction of her predecessor’s Animal Law and its potential impact on bullfights and cockfights, has declared, “I am a protector of animals and we’re at a point of revising all that.” She suggested Mexico’s traditions should be analysed from a new perspective that did not involve animal suffering. "In some countries, for example,” she said, “bullfights are carried out without the death of the animal." Whether she has in mind so-called ‘bloodless bullfights’ or a total ban is not yet clear, as she added, “If there are people who make a living from these practices, they should look for different placements so that people are not also left unemployed.”

With the President’s personal backing and the relative lack of organisation of the county’s mundillo taurino, this new initiative poses a real danger to the future of bullfighting in Mexico. The Federal Representative of Morena, also one of the country’s main bullfight promoters (a ganadero and apoderado as well), Pedro Haces Barba, recently commented, “As a result of the Fiesta Brava’s failure to modernise, the end is possibly in sight of one of the cultural and artistic expressions that is most representative of the history of the Latin American world. This would not only imply the loss of a centuries-old tradition, but also the loss of thousands of jobs and, therefore, will generate a negative and significant impact on the economy of numerous communities that depend directly on this activity.” Without providing any details as to how it might change, he concluded, “It is urgent that the Fiesta Brava adapts to the current times if we want to preserve it. Never before now has the Fiesta Brava been so close to its definitive prohibition. ”