Compromís has announced that if the Valencia city government led by María José Catalá approves the simulated child-friendly bullring event in the center of Valencia — featuring bull-shaped carts — proposed by Vicente Barrera, the Valencian vice president, in the Ciutat Vella District Council, Valencianists will file a complaint with the Spanish Defensor del Menor, a role integrated into the functions of the Defensor del Pueblo, Ángel Gabilondo.
To Compromís, Catalá should speak out today and declare that she will block this “barbarity,” which Valencian supporters see as retrograde, crazy, and humiliating for the city’s minors. Glòria Tello, the Compromís councilor and deputy spokesperson, stated that “Catalá and Barrera should be reminded that the UN determined that children deserve protection from the violence generated by bullfighting.”
Furthermore, Tello argues that “Valencia must be a city respectful of the animals with whom we share life” and asserts that “proposals as retrograde, as crazy and humiliating as this enclosure would reveal that Catalá could run on PP or Vox lists with equal ease.”
Despite the criticism, in most Valencian municipalities governed by Compromís, this practice has been carried out routinely during patron saint festivities, for example in Burriana, Castellón, Vila-real, la Vall d’Uixó, and Betxí. In the last eight years, in municipalities such as Llíria or La Pobla de Vallbona, this practice of enclosures with carts has also been carried out alongside the bullfighting festivities of bous al carrer.
Catalá “sees it as difficult” for this act to be carried out
Regarding this question, the Valencia mayor, María José Catalá, has stated that she “sees it as difficult” to carry out this simulated bullring, although she has not elaborated further. During her visit to the Roig Arena construction, she noted that the proposal still needs approval at the Ciutat Vella District Council meeting on the next June 3.
Other similar proposals
From Compromís they recalled that this idea has not been the first time that “the far right” has brought to Ciutat Vella District Council the plan for a small urban route to stage a simulated children’s enclosure, where parents push bull-shaped carts and children run ahead; the Compromís government and Joan Ribó blocked its celebration in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
It is worth noting, Valencian supporters claim, that the PP and Vox governments have also taken a step further by approving the workshop ‘Learn to wrap’ in Benifaraig. This is documented in the act from the past March 5 of the Consell de Districte de la Junta Municipal de Pobles del Nord, chaired by María José Ferrer San Segundo, the first deputy mayor and PP councilor of Finance. This event is confirmed to take place, although exact dates have not yet been set.
Finally, Compromís points to “the hypocrisy of Catalá,” who recently made grandiose statements in favor of child protection, yet remains silent in the face of this act deemed “a shame.”