Parliament postpones the new Animal Protection law, but supports the National Bullfighting award

Ten votes after eight and a half hours of debate that was too dry. It was necessary to wait until 6:27 p.m. for the plenary session of the Parliament of La Rioja to express its touch of emotion and confirm that anything is possible in politics.

The afternoon has been very bullfighting, only the bugles have been missing, thanks to a non-legal proposal from Vox, defended by its deputy Héctor Alacid, in which the Rioja Government was urged to urge the Executive of Spain “to immediately revocation of the decision to eliminate the National Bullfighting Award.

Alacid, a self-confessed fan, has been going around the chamber when he saw how his initiative went ahead comfortably, since the two votes of his group were joined by the 17 from the Popular and the 12 from the Socialist, compared to the only rejection, resounding in addition to the two seats of Podemos-IU, which have condemned animal torture.

After remembering that bullfighting “was not invented by Franco, but is a cultural expression of more than five centuries linked to the identity of Spain,” the Vox deputy defended that “it is an art without political color or ideology and, at the same time , a source of wealth and employment”, for which he has criticized the sectarianism of the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, the most radical part of the left, by revoking said award, endowed with 30,000 euros.

The socialist spokesperson, Javier García, spokesperson for the Socialist Group and also a self-confessed bullfighter, after admitting that “in my party there are people who defend the bullfight and others hate it,” has advanced his group’s alleged yes by warning Vox that “If they were thinking of compromising the PSOE, they have hit a nerve, because ours is a plural and diverse party, as is Spanish society.” He is also the mayor of Arnedo, a particularly bullfighting municipality, has agreed that “bullfighting is neither left nor right” and has recalled, in fact, that the award was created by the Government of Spain under the presidency of the socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

From the Popular Group, deputy Antonio Eguizábal, in addition to insisting on bullfighting as part of Spanish culture and highlighting its economic and job creation muscle – “up to 200,000 jobs in some periods” – has attacked the minister for justify the revocation of the award because a minority audience attends the bullrings, “when more people go than those who voted for their party last Sunday in the European elections.”

“We do not understand that the torture of an animal can be the center of a party,” said Podemos-IU deputy Carlos Ollero, who recalled that even the Church has condemned bullfighting for its barbarism, “already that there is a papal bull from Pius V, still in force.

However, what has been returned to pigsties, due to lack of support, has been an initiative presented by the Socialist Group in the form of a motion resulting from interpellation by which it was proposed that the Parliament of La Rioja urge the Executive of Gonzalo Capellán to present in the Chamber, within a maximum period of three months, a draft Law on Animal Protection and Welfare in the Rioja Chamber for processing and subsequent approval after the repeal of the previous regulations.

The Minister of the Environment, Noemí Manzanos, has defended in her speech the need to wait for the development of the national standard, despite the insistence of the socialist deputy Jesús María in criticizing the current anarchy after the repeal of the previous law in the region, where he has stressed there is no animal collection service today.

The initiative, which has had the support of the twelve socialist seats and the two votes from IU- Podemos, has been overturned by the popular majority, which has been joined by the two representatives of Vox, a group that, through the mouth of Alacid , has shown its rejection of any rights for animals being legislated at the regional and state level.

Republican values

The same fate has suffered another non-legal proposal from the Podemos-IU Parliamentary Group regarding the Parliament of La Rioja urging the Rioja Government to guarantee comprehensive coverage of oral health in the Rioja Health Service, including orthodontic treatments. an initiative that has had the support of the socialists and the two Vox deputies, after accepting their amendment to guarantee this coverage for young people and children and provided that orthodontics is not related exclusively to aesthetic needs and with the demand to encourage The Government of Spain has to include this service in the portfolio of the National Health System. However, the majority of the PP has shot down the proposal by considering, as its deputy Alberto Olarte has defended, that the request is “unaffordable and demagogic.”

From the seats of Podemos-IU a non-legal proposal has arrived that seemed controversial. In the same Henar Moreno has defended that the Parliament of La Rioja shows its firm commitment to republican values ​​and adheres to the demonstration that will be held next Sunday, June 16, in Madrid under the motto ‘Philip VI: 10 years enough Democracy Yes, Monarchy NO, on the occasion of ten years since the abdication of Juan Carlos I. The initiative has been voted separately, and although both points have been separated, the first has also obtained the support of the 12 deputies of the PSOE, but in the second the representatives of IU have been left alone in the face of the 31 elections of PP, PSOE and Vox.

Three flashes of unanimity

In the hemicycle panel, the plenary session of 33 favorable votes has also been achieved on three occasions, since three proposals have been unanimously approved: one from the Socialist Group by which Parliament will urge the Rioja Government to maintain and continue the current pilot program coverage of the two jobs at the San Pedro Hospital for people with disabilities, with the successive incorporation of other future candidates for them, with the aim of giving stability over time to this program; another from Vox, by which the Chamber will urge the Rioja Executive to publish, as a matter of urgency, information on the agenda and the agreements adopted by the Government Council, in compliance with the Law of Transparency and Good Government; and a third from the Popular Group, by which the Parliament of La Rioja urged the regional Executive to, in turn, urge the Government of Spain to urgently begin the necessary work for the installation of a pedestrian crossing that connects in optimal conditions of road safety the Fuente Ciega de Haro industrial estate with the urban center of the municipality crossing the N-124 highway.