PARIS: French Farm Minister Didier Guillaume came under fire on Friday from environmentalists and opposition parties after being photographed attending a bullfight alongside a cabinet colleague.

Guillaume and Jacqueline Gourault, the minister in charge of territorial cohesion, were among 6,000 people who attended a bullfight Wednesday in the southwestern city of Bayonne, a French bastion of the controversial tradition. The pair were photographed in the front row of the arena.

Greens MEP Yannick Jadot accused Guillaume in an angry tweet of “not giving a damn about animal suffering” and called his presence at the fight, where star matador Daniel Luque put six bulls to death, “pathetic”.

Florian Philippot, leader of the small eurosceptic Patriots party, also criticised the minister.

“The agriculture minister responsible for animal welfare attends a corrida.... After that we can expect to see no change in the situation on factory farming, abattoirs and banning slaughter without stunning,” he tweeted.

The Brigitte Bardot animal rights’ foundation called Guillaume’s and Gourault’s show of support for the blood sport “beyond scandalous and disgusting”. Neither minister responded to the criticism.

Bullfighting is banned in most of France but is allowed in some southern regions where it is protected as part of local traditions.

Defenders of bullfighting say it has huge cultural importance, embodying traditions dating back hundreds of years but its popularity has been steadily waning in recent years.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2019