The political party PAN (People, Animals, Nature) has decided to launch a petition. This petition will be calling for a referendum on the stance of bullfighting in Portugal. They demand to banish the practice of bullfighting due to animal violence.
PAN Demands To Abolish Bullfighting
There has been an appeal from PAN to all parties to support them in this referendum. They have already announced to launch of a public petition that will be calling for a referendum against the bullfighting practices. This announcement to call against bullfighting came on the same day when their petition was rejected in the Parliament. PAN had filed another proposal to ban under 16 teenagers from attending the bullfights. They filed this proposal to exclude children from watching gruesome horrors.
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Parliament rejected their proposal to exclude the under 16 children. PAN filed the motion to ban the bullfighting on the same day. PAN might take some other options like going to the civil court for this case. The party is very enthusiastic about banning bullfights. They believe that it endangers the animals and considers these sports to be cruel. Inês de Sousa Real, the party’s spokesperson stated:
Parliament did not have the courage to put itself on the right side of history, but we know that we have the strength and ambition of civil society on our side, which defends animal rights.
Parliament Rejects PAN Referendum
The Parliament has rejected the referendum presented by PAN. This referendum was rejected on Friday morning. Political parties who rejected the referendum are as follows:
- Chega
- Iniciativa Liberal
- CDS-PP (People’s Party)
- PS (Socialist Party)
- PSD (Social Democratic Party)
- PCP (Portuguese Communist Party)
The MP has reminded all the political parties about the comments of the United Nations Committee. The committee has urged Portugal to keep children and young people away from bullfighting as it is considered a gruesome sport. The MP stated:
Portugal continues to go against the recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, which has already urged the country twice to keep children and young people away from bullfighting.
Only the BE (Left Bloc) and Livre political parties voted in favor of this referendum. Other than these parties, 3 deputies of Socialist did not vote in this matter. PAN also made a proposal in the Parliament for the ban of under 16 children attending bullfighting. This proposal was also rejected. Those parties who voted against this proposal are as follows:
- Chega
- CDS-PP (People’s Party)
- PSD (Social Democratic Party)
- PCP (Portuguese Communist Party)
- 17 Socialist Party deputies
The political party Iniciativa Liberal did not vote for this proposal introduced by PAN. Parties who voted in favor of this proposal were PS (Socialist Party), BE (Left Bloc), PAN, and Livre.
Spokesperson of the party, Sousa Real stated:
[Interest of] children and young people [were not considered that is why they] opted to continue leaving them exposed to the violence of this inhuman practice.
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