The Ministry of Health, Presidency and Emergencies of the Junta de Andalucía has opened a public information period to modify the order that regulates subsidies to municipalities adhered to the Network of Bullfighting Municipalities of Andalusia. The draft project, signed by minister Antonio Sanz, contemplates raising the regional contribution from 50% to 80% of the cost of bullfighting promotion activities, while town councils would finance only the remaining 20%.
According to the official document published in the Official Bulletin of the Junta de Andalucía, the modification aims to make the payment of these subsidies "less burdensome" for the councils. The aid, granted under a non-competitive bidding regime, has a maximum amount of €4,000 and a minimum of €800 per municipality. For 2025, the Junta has announced these subsidies with a total allocation of €60,000.
Eligible items include "promotional, promotional and support actions for bullfighting in all its cultural and artistic manifestations" and "actions to inform and raise awareness among the population about the importance of bullfighting as a hallmark of Andalusian culture."
Madrid Leads Public Spending on Bullfighting for 2026
The Community of Madrid has approved a budget of €7.2 million for Bullfighting Affairs for 2026, representing an increase of 59.7% compared to the €4.5 million in 2025. Of this amount, €3.7 million will be specifically allocated to the renovation and modernization of the Las Ventas bullring, more than triple the €1.2 million allocated the previous year.
Madrid's Minister of Economy, Finance and Employment, Rocío Albert, has defended these figures, arguing that support for entities such as the Fundación Toro de Lidia — which received €1.7 million in 2025 — is comparable to that allocated to cultural institutions like the Teatro Real or the Teatro de la Abadía.
Telemadrid, the regional public television network, has budgeted €3,102,500 for bullfighting broadcasts in 2025, an increase of 113% compared to the €1,452,830 in 2024. The 2025 San Isidro Fair alone received an investment of €2,900,000 for the broadcast of 28 events, equivalent to nearly €100,000 per event paid to the company managing Las Ventas.
The Madrid City Council has also approved for 2026 a direct subsidy of €30,000 to the Fundación Toro de Lidia, as stated in the budget amendments approved by the Partido Popular.
Autonomous Communities Intensify Economic Support for the Bullfighting Industry
Castilla y León positions itself as the second community allocating the most public resources to bullfighting. According to data from the National Publicity System for Subsidies and Public Aid, this autonomous community has transferred €1.4 million between 2021 and 2025. In June 2025, the Junta de Castilla y León authorized €26,000 to support the operation of the Salamanca School of Bullfighting.
The Fundación Toro de Lidia has been the main beneficiary of these aids, receiving €1,237,000 from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports of Castilla y León between 2020 and 2023. In Andalusia, this same entity has received €516,000 from the Ministry of the Presidency, Interior and Social Dialogue between 2021 and 2023.
Castilla-La Mancha allocates €1,300,000 annually to the broadcasting of bullfights through its regional television channel CMM, despite the fact that more than 678,000 people are at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the region, according to data from the European Anti-Poverty Network.
Extremadura approved in September 2024 Decree 115/2024 establishing the regulatory bases for granting subsidies for the support and promotion of bullfighting culture. The Diputación de Badajoz allocates €950,000 to the provincial bullfighting school, where minors from the age of 14 can practice with live animals.
Aragón TV has resumed broadcasting bullfights after a decade-long hiatus, sharing production costs with other regional television networks such as Telemadrid, Castilla-La Mancha, and Murcia, amounting to €8,000 per event per channel. The Zaragoza City Council has signed an agreement with the bullfighting school "Mar de Nubes" contributing €25,000 of public money.
Public Subsidies Multiply by 2.6 in One Year While Attendance Drops to 1.9%
Public subsidies destined for pro-bullfighting groups have experienced an unprecedented increase in 2025. According to data from the National Publicity System for Subsidies and Public Aid, these aids have gone from €905,000 in the previous fiscal year to exceed €2.4 million in 2025, an increase of 165%.
The Fundación Toro de Lidia has registered a 35% growth in its public awards in just one year, going from €469,000 in 2022 to €637,500 in 2023. In the last five years, this entity has received no less than €2.6 million from state, regional, provincial, and local administrations.
This increase contrasts radically with social reality. According to the Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices of the Ministry of Culture, the percentage of Spaniards attending bullfighting events has fallen from 8.6% in 2002-2003 to 1.9% in 2021-2022. In 2006, 12 out of every 100 men declared attending at least one bullfight; fifteen years later, only two out of every hundred do.
The autonomous communities governed by the Partido Popular and VOX concentrate the majority of these aids. Madrid and Castilla y León lead public funding, followed by Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Aragon, Valencian Community, Murcia, and the Balearic Islands.
"The insistence of the PP and the lack of opposition from the PSOE is achieving a silent advance in public money support for bullfighting", declares Aïda Gascón, director of AnimaNaturalis in Spain. "There is a lot of obscurantism and a web of figures that is almost impossible to break down. It is very important for the population to know how much they pay for these festivities based on animal abuse."
An Activity Declared a Cultural Asset That Structurally Depends on Public Money
Bullfighting was declared a Cultural Interest Asset in 2013 by the absolute majority of the Partido Popular led by Mariano Rajoy. This declaration has served as justification for the progressive increase in public subsidies across different administrations.
However, the economic dependence of the bullfighting industry on public money is structural. According to economic studies, subsidies from the Common Agricultural Policy represent up to 31.6% of the income of livestock farms dedicated to breeding fighting bulls. The president of the Fundación Toro de Lidia, Victorino Martín, has personally received €1,474,997 from the Common Agricultural Programme, according to official data.
At the state level, the Ministry of Culture allocates €30,000 to the National Bullfighting Award and €35,000 as a subsidy to the Fundación Toro de Lidia for disseminating knowledge about the bullfighting world. These are the only direct budgetary allocations from the central government, compared to the €167 million allocated to cinema.
Opacity in accounting for public aid is a constant. Various sources place the total public subsidies for bullfighting in Spain at around €500 million annually if European, state, regional, provincial, and municipal funds are added up, including direct aid, hidden subsidies through public television networks, tax exemptions, and aid to the fighting bull livestock sector.
The European Parliament approved in October 2015 an amendment to the 2016 budget establishing that "funds from the Common Agricultural Policy or any other European financing line should not be used to financially support bullfighting activities that involve the death of the bull." The vote obtained 438 votes in favor, 199 against, and 50 abstentions.
Despite this resolution, fighting bull farms continue to receive CAP aid under the same conditions as other livestock farms, which has generated controversy over the effective compliance with the European directive.
"We are facing a profound transformation of the social fabric", states Gascón. "The decline in attendance and the growing rejection of bullfighting respond to an evolution in collective consciousness that has redefined the relationship with individuals of other species. The suffering inflicted on animals in the bullrings is increasingly considered unnecessary and unjustifiable."
