Comforted by his acquittal on Tuesday by the Nîmes court, the influencer Jeremstar, tried for having burst into the city’s arenas in the middle of a bullfight, launched an appeal to “continue actions so that one day this barbaric spectacle stops”.
“And yes, we will say it, we will continue to annoy people who promote violence by killing bulls,” promised the 39-year-old animal rights defender to 2.5 million followers on Instagram and 2.9 million on TikTok as he left the courtroom.
“The court considered that the activity of bullfighting could not have the status of sport and that therefore, the arenas did not constitute a sporting venue. Under these conditions, the offenses are not constituted,” the president of the court, Anne-Carine David, had just explained.
She pronounced the “relaxation” of Jeremstar, Jérémy Gisclon of his real name, and of the four anti-bullfight activists who were judged alongside him for having appeared in the middle of the arena of the ancient city in September 2025, brandishing a fabric bearing the inscription “F*CK la CORRIDA”.
During the hearing on April 2, the prosecution requested a fine of 5,000 to 6,000 euros against him, with a ban on attending the arenas, while he theoretically faced up to one year of imprisonment.
“Half-hearted” victory
On a legal level, he was prosecuted for having “illegally entered a sports venue disrupting the progress of the competition”, according to an article of the sports code.
The court therefore had to mainly decide whether bullfighting shows can be considered sporting competitions, as the prosecution argued, seeing it as a “competition against a bull and between bullfighters”.
“To choose, I would have preferred to be convicted because that would mean that we recognize bullfighting as a sport and therefore that it must be banned, because within the framework of the Sports Code, it is prohibited to torture animals. So it’s a victory, but mixed,” said Jeremstar.
The prosecution now has six days to appeal.
The blogger was greeted in front of the court, located right next to the bullring, by between 100 and 200 fans, many of whom carried signs saying “Let’s abolish bullfighting!”, but also by a few young men who shouted “Long live bullfighting”.
Bullfighting, a bullfighting spectacle of Spanish origin in which a bullfighter (or matador) confronts and kills a fighting bull, regularly provokes debates in France between defenders of this “regional cultural tradition” and animal rights activists.
It has been legally authorized since 1951 in around ten departments in the South of France where it represents an “uninterrupted local tradition”. This constitutes, according to the Penal Code, an exception to the general prohibition of “exercising serious harm or committing an act of cruelty towards an animal”.
