Legislation on bullfighting and other bull events is not an issue for the Council of Majorca, but the institution is influential. Partido Popular representatives, therefore, brought a motion before its full meeting on Thursday in which it called for the correbou (bull-run) in Fornalutx to be excluded from legislation to outlaw bull events.
Jeroni Salom asked if the same political parties that wish to prohibit the bull-run would do the same if they were governing in Madrid where the San Isidro and San Fermin fiestas are occasions for bullfights. He said that Fornalutx is a small village with few residents and that it should not be placed at a level of inequality compared to other places. "If the correbou is considered to be animal mistreatment, then the same argument is valid in the case of all other events throughout Spain."
Salom queried the "double speak" of political parties which claim to represent a "new politics", arguing that the people of the village and the town hall should be listened to. He presented a motion urging the regional government, the Council of Majorca and political parties represented in the Balearic parliament to exempt the banning of the bull-run in the upcoming amendment to animal welfare legislation. He also called for procedures to be set in motion to award the bull-run the status of intangible cultural heritage of the Balearics.
The motion was defeated by the votes of members of the ruling administration and so included those of PSOE. At the town hall in Fornalutx, PSOE councillors have expressed their outrage over the likely ban and are considering leaving the party.
In other business, the meeting considered the current operation of the Tramuntana Mountains Consortium. It, observed the PP councillor, Antoni Serra Comas, has been without effective management since its director's contract was not renewed in October (he had been a PP appointee). "The consortium is in a state of total paralysis. It has no direction or initiatives, so it is time for it to get back to work and for the regional government to say what type of management model there should be for promoting the Tramuntana."
Another issue for the meeting was the refugee situation on the Greek island of Chios, which a delegation headed by the president, Miquel Ensenyat, visited a few days ago. A declaration of the rights of refugees within the project "Majorca with Chios" was approved. This said that agreement between the European Union and Turkey to return refugees arriving in Greece without proper documentation would be a flagrant violation of international law, the Geneva Convention and European treaties.
The Council expressed its solidarity with refugees coming to Europe and called on European member states to allow the movement of refugees and to prepare to receive them.