Recent Marches Show How Much Spanish Love to Protest
Even though the tourism industry is booming, the economy is
recovering, and the politicians can’t agree on anything, there are still
problems the Spanish wish to air. The two main issues are Catalonia’s bid for
independence and bullfighting.
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| Spanish citizens love to protest and come out in large numbers |
It’s estimated that some 540,000 people attended a rally
held in Barcelona on Sunday. The rally was held to support the creation of a
legally binding independence referendum. The leader of the separatists Carles
Puigdemont has set a target of 2017 as the deadline for when Catalans should be
given the vote on if they want to be independent from Spain.
Madrid has always stopped these independence efforts and
will likely do so this time around. Even though it looks like Catalonia will
never win this battle it is never enough to stop them from fighting it. The
Catalan National Day is regularly used as a means to drum up more support for
the independence bid. There was also a non-legally binding vote held back in
2014 that saw 1.6 million Catalonians say they favoured a split from Spain.
This should be all the proof that is needed to secure a vote on the issue.
There is just something about the psyche of the Spanish and
Catalan people that sees opposing injustice as a virtue. As such the Spaniards
are often marching or protesting for a good portion of the year.
There was another protest held in the capital of Madrid
about something that is close to the heart of millions around the world as well
as the Spanish. That is the issue of bullfighting. There are many supporters of
bullfighting but it looks like the bloodsport has no place in the more modern
and liberal Spain, never mind in society as a whole.
Thousands of people marched through Spain declaring that if
bullfighting was a representation of Spain they must not be Spanish. This is a
valid and interesting interpretation of the history of Spain. Indeed if the
Spanish no longer identify with something that has long been used to represent
Spain and her people then is it still valid in Spanish society?
It looks like the protests are having an effect and the
popularity of bullfighting is on the way down. “Only” 1,736 bullfights happened
across Spain which is down 132 from 2014. Whether it is traditional or not it
looks like Spaniards are turning their back on the sport but some would argue
that apathy is perhaps more dangerous than opposition.
Whether this apathy for bullfighting infects the fight for
independence for Catalan remains to be seen, but it doesn’t seem likely given
the passion of the Catalan people.
