Ruffled feathers: Spain’s songbird hunting becomes latest frontline in populist challenge to Brussels

The birdsong rings out to lure unwitting victims into nets while others are snared with birdlime, which glues them to the ground unable to escape. “The European Union wants to control even the singing of the birds,” said Francisco Carrera, a regional MP who was a member of Vox. “Brussels wants to attack this traditional practice.” In normal times a popular tourist destination for golf-loving British holidaymakers, Murcia is ruled by an alliance of the PP, Vox and the centrist Ciudadanos party so the motion could be passed. “I think that with parties like Vox becoming stronger and with the support of the PP we may be able to see the return of songbird hunting in Spain,” Paco Bastida, the president of the Murcia Federation of Hunters, told The Independent. open image in gallery A bird caught in an illegal net “We have to resist this practice because the number of these birds is in decline anyway because of intensive farming and loss of habitat so this practice does not help,” said Mario Gimenez, of SEO Birdlife, told The Independent.