The Supreme Court orders the government to include bullfights in the youth culture voucher.
The Court accepts the appeal of the Toro de Lidia Foundation and annuls the article of the Royal Decree of 2022 that provides for the Youth Culture Service Grant and explicitly excludes bullfighting from the activities eligible for the grant.
The government's Youth Culture Benefit, which helps young people to access culture with up to €400 of public money, is also forced to subsidise access to bullfighting. The Supreme Court has accepted the appeal of the Toro de Lidia Foundation and annulled the articles of the Royal Decree which stipulated that bullfights were not eligible. The judges are not clear whether bullfighting is a "cultural phenomenon", but they understand that the government has not justified the exclusion of bullfighting from the €400 public cultural aid for young people.
According to the Supreme Court, the explanations in the preamble of the regulation are not "valid" because they state that this type of performance is promoted by other instruments, but they are not specified. The Supreme Court states that the 'bono cultural joven' (cultural benefit for young people) is not only general in nature but can also be considered valid because it is aimed at a new generation, i.e. it looks to the future represented by young people, which is essential for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage. Consequently, there is not the necessary link between the actions described and Bono Cultural Joven to conclude that bullfighting is treated in accordance with the importance recognised by the legislator," the judges conclude.
The Youth Cultural Voucher was first announced in October 2021 and finally launched in March 2022. Each young person who turns 18 in 2022 will be granted up to €400 and 365 days to spend the balance on options of their choice: €200 on live activities, €100 on physical products and €100 on online or digital spending.
The Royal Decree governing this cultural voucher provides for exceptions, one of which is Article 8(2), which has now been clarified by the Supreme Court's Litigation Chamber. "The purchase of stationery, printed or digital textbooks, computers and electronic equipment, software, hardware and consumables, artistic materials, musical instruments, sporting and bullfighting events, fashion and gastronomy is not eligible for aid," the regulation states. Now the resolution in this resolution deletes "and bullfighting", which excludes public aid for the purchase of tickets for bullfights with this voucher.
The complaint was lodged by the Toro de Lidia Foundation, which has previously filed other complaints and lawsuits against decisions by the public administration against bullfights, such as the refusal of Olot town hall to organise a bullfight in 2019, and even filed a lawsuit against the former mayor of Villena for the same reason. The government justified the exclusion of bullfighting from this cultural benefit by arguing that "any public administration" can choose what it wants to support, "and is therefore not obliged to support all sectors with all the instruments it develops".
The Supreme Court upholds the Foundation's appeal, having recognised its legitimacy. They do so by first pointing out that the legislature, not the Supreme Court, declared bullfighting a culture which the Constitutional Court has also accepted. A cultural nature that in no way obliges the public authorities to promote it "in a certain way", in this case by subsidising it so that young people can engage in bullfighting.
The judges considered that the explanations given in the preamble to the law are not "valid" and are "inadequate general explanations" for the prohibition of bullfighting. The Supreme Court reasoned that the law "requires a single and sufficiently important justification for the exclusion of bullfighting performances from the Bono Cultural Joven programme", which, according to its criteria, is not present in this case. This also applies to other excluded elements such as sporting events or fashion, even if the judgment refers only to bullfighting.
