Madrid's regional government says it will declare bullfighting part of the region's protected cultural heritage, a move seen as a dig at Catalonia where a debate on banning the spectacle is causing a stir, according to AP. Regional President Esperanza Aguirre defends the decision, saying no other artistic event is so clearly identified with Spanish and Mediterranean culture. She cites the passion for bullfighting among artists such as Dali and Picasso and authors like Hemingway and Lorca as proof of its artistic and cultural merits. Some newspapers Friday accused Aguirre of political opportunism and of interfering in a debate in the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on whether to prohibit bullfighting on the grounds that it is cruel.
