The government of San Sebastián de los Reyes continues to demonstrate its passion for bullfighting, for which it does not spare money in its budgets. To the traditional running of the bulls that it schedules in August during the patronal festivities of Cristo de los Remedios – some at night in the presence of minors – it will now add the so-called “White Running of the Bulls” that the PP established after its arrival in government: they take place in January and This time they will represent a total expenditure of 200,000 thousand euros for municipal coffers, double that of 2023.
The total budget for bullfighting activities in San Sebastián de los Reyes will exceed 600,000 euros in 2025, and the two-year contract can be extended for another year, according to Izquierda Independiente (ISSR), one of the groups of opposition who defend these complaints before. the “passivity” and “complicity” that he attributes to the PSOE, which previously governed the City Hall in coalition with Ciudadanos.
The new bull races “invented” by the new government team led by PP Mayor Lucía Fernández, will take place on January 18 and 19, 2025 during the festivities of the patron saint San Sebastian Mártir. The tender document “negotiated without advertising and with direct award” reveals that the sole acquisition of the livestock that will circulate during these two days will cost 80,000 euros, more than double what was spent the previous year.
The cost of installing the fence amounts to 57,200 euros, to which must be added the costs of security, insurance and adaptation of the enclosures. “In total, we are spending 200,000 euros on bullfighting activities for the January bull races which have never been a tradition in San Sebastián de los Reyes,” denounces Izquierda Independiente.
For the councilor of this group, Carmen Palacios, “this expenditure is unnecessary and represents thousands of taxpayer euros which will not be used to meet the real and most urgent needs of the neighbors”. The investment to acquire the cattle exceeds the 75,000 euros that Mayor Lucía Fernández took from education and the maintenance of public schools and the improvement of sports facilities to give to the bullfighting celebrations organized in the summer. “It is clear that the PP’s priority is not the well-being of Sanse,” he laments.
Environmental groups in the municipality have joined the complaints of the party and, more timidly, of the only municipal councilor there who has Más Madrid-Verdes Equo.
The bullfighting Peñas, against the independent left
The denunciation of this disproportionate increase in spending on bullfights led the Federation of Bullfighting Clubs and Associations of San Sebastián de los Reyes to issue a statement
In the letter, the bullfighters describe Torres’ request to the municipal government to put an end to these events as “recurring, opportunistic and partisan”, while accusing him of “defending these traditions in his village”, Beas de Segura (Jaén), where his family resides.
For the Federation, the “White Encierros” “in addition to promoting bullfighting and traditions, are an economic engine for the municipality”. In the declaration they also refer to “article 46 of our Constitution, which says that bullfighting is a cultural heritage” and that “public authorities must guarantee its conservation and promote its enrichment”, as well as “the law which declares bullfighting cultural heritage”. in which it is specified that the public authorities are also required to protect it.
The government of Pedro Sánchez repealed the National Bullfighting Awards in September this year. To this end, it opened a public consultation to citizens which obtained more than 90% support for its withdrawal. Sources from the Ministry of Culture led by Ernest Urtasun explained that “the motivation” for removing the award “took into account the evolution of Spanish society”. The Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices in Spain shows that only 1.9% of the Spanish population attends bullfighting shows, observing an interannual decrease in 2023 of 4.7% in the number of bullfighting celebrations organized in Spain.
This is not the case in San Sebastián de los Reyes, whose leaders continue to promote these types of celebrations. The August festivities of this municipality in honor of the Cristo de los Remedios have always taken a good part of the municipal budgets, both when the Socialists governed and now with the PP, which since the last elections in May 2023 took the lead. power in the municipality. Room. In fact, the city of Madrid is famous for its desire to promote bullfighting, so much so that it is nicknamed “little Pamplona”.
The former mayor, from the PSOE, Narciso Romero, also decided in 2022 to increase the bullfights scheduled by the city from six to eleven, which led to an upward modification of the contract with the company that manages the bullrings of the city, at 760,000 euros.
