I’ve only stepped into a bullring to attend a concert. I have never seen a race for two reasons: one, because, as a Galician from a small village that I am, nature deprived me of the culture to understand the art of bullfighting; another, because having been raised among cows that lived on the ground floor of the house as much-loved members of the family, I think the same as Manuel Fraga’s grandmother – or aunt, I don’t remember well: “These are not ways to treat cattle.”
You will understand that, thinking like this, I am not very moved by the suspension of the National Bullfighting award. Due to my lack of bullfighting erudition I do not have to enter into the fantastic controversy organized in newspapers and taverns in the middle of Spain. And due to my obvious lack of bullfighting sensitivity, I cannot appreciate how it hurts society. If it is to get votes in Catalonia on Sunday, it may be a mistake: the Catalan votes in favor may be punishment in other communities and we will see, in any case, what is the success of Sumar, the minister’s party.
What surprised this chronicler was how Ernest Urtasun justified his decision: the Tauromàquia prize, as it has a financial endowment, spends public money, and public money should not be spent on something that the people do not want. How right, Mr. Minister! What an exemplary reflection of a left-wing politician! What a profound ethical contribution! What a demand on the ruling class, now that Brussels will force fiscal discipline adjustments! And what a seductive material to proclaim the exemplarity of the Spanish Government in managing public funds with rigor, social vocation and austerity!
Now the minister must take his decision to other areas of greater significance than the bulls. Not that it is a new factor of social division. It is that, if it is necessary to delete everything that involves questionably used public money, it becomes urgent to review the hundreds or billions of euros in subsidies. And the official dependencies that duplicate functions should be deleted. And it would be necessary to close canonries and centers where the usefulness is yet to be demonstrated. Among which, some ministries. Make it clear that if this is done, how do you place friends? How do you reward yes to a coalition government? The bullfighters do not decide on an investiture.
