MADRID, 23 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Diversiones en el Ruedo y sus Enanitos Toreros Company has defended this week its show known as the firefighter-bullfighter against the law that wants to prohibit it and that Congress, predictably, will approve on Thursday, April 27. “We are artists, we are bullfighters: enough of the prohibitions,” claims this company, which is confronting the NGOs of people with disabilities who label their activity “vexatious.”
During the process in the lower house of the law transposing European Union Directives on the accessibility of certain products and services, an ERC amendment was included to reform the rule on the Rights of People with Disabilities and their Social Inclusion to prohibit “the non-discrimination of people with disabilities in public shows and recreational activities”.
This text has been approved this week in the Senate -without the votes of PP and Vox-, although the inclusion of novelties in its processing in the Upper House has forced Congress to ratify them. On Thursday, April 27, predictably, the rule will be approved and these shows will be prohibited.
However, from the company they are optimistic and, through messages on Twitter, they point out that there are still “options” and encourage people who support their situation to “not give up”.
This company defines itself as a “bullfighting comedy show” and ensures that it encourages bullfighting “among families” and “bullfighting professionals”. “We are bullfighters, we are artists, enough of the prohibitions. We do not want to pay”, they explain from the company in a message that they address to the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI).
This entity is the one that has promoted the measure, brought to Parliament by ERC, and also endorsed by other organizations that are part of the disability associative movement, such as People with Achondroplasia and other Skeletal Dysplasias with Dwarfism (ADDE), which qualifies these shows of “vexatious”, “decadent” and “oriented to ridicule and mockery of human beings because of their disability”.
From ADDE they remember that the bullfighter firefighter violates the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the United Nations, in addition, they consider that this type of act separates people with this disability “from inclusion in society.” “It perpetuates the image of people with achondroplasia as buffoonish and laughable beings who are only good for that,” they warn from the entity.
The Ministry of Social Rights has been promoting this reform for years. The general director of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Jesús Martín Blanco, who suffers from bone dysplasia (a type of dwarfism), has come to demand that the town halls where this show was to be held cancel it. In his opinion, this type of act “legitimizes” the “tradition of laughing at those who are different.” “Because if the boys and girls are taken by their parents or grandparents, it means that in some way they are given permission to laugh at people like me,” he stressed.
From the department directed by Ione Belarra they have explained to Europa Press that this law covers all shows that take place in public spaces and that, with this rule, they have tried to be “as guaranteed as possible, within what is allowed by current legislation” . The objective, as she explained, is “to tackle the most common denigrating situations that were being detected.”
Meanwhile, Vox is in favor of those who participate in the bullfighter firefighter’s show “being able to continue living from their work”, just as, as they have pointed out, “they want to continue doing”. In fact, the formation presented in the Senate an amendment to suppress the text on this subject and it was not accepted. “We will always support these people so that they can continue working with dignity, as they have always done,” the party insisted.