Local referendum on bull-running

BENISSA is holding a referendum in February. The town hall is not planning anything as controversial as independence, only bull-running although this too is increasingly controversial, even in the bull-mad Marina Alta.

Benissa Town Council is skirting the pro-bull or anti-bull question, however, and asking residents where they would prefer next year’s bull-running to be held during the town’s Purissimina Xiqueta fiestas next April.

They will vote on continuing this in Plaza Jaume in the town centre or moving it to the car park at the Manuel Bru school.

Only a limited number of ‘cadafals’, the safety cages where the bull-baiters run to safety, can be installed in the plaza, which is the usual setting for the event. Instead, the car park is bigger and there would be room for more cages and participants.

When the referendum was proposed at the last plenary meeting the motion did not have the backing of the Compromis, Reiniciem Benissa or Ciudadanos opposition parties. All wanted the referendum to include a question on a future ban on bull-running and abstained from voting.

Had the question been included in the referendum, Benissa would have been the first Marina Alta municipality to sound out public opinion on this issue.