For almost twelve years, RTVE managers have received an exclusive salary for being part of the management body of public radio and television. From now on, according to the decree approved this Wednesday in Congress, they will be remunerated like the rest of the administrators of the public entity, they will have “exclusive dedication” and they will be elected by a new majority regime in the Chambers.
Being part of the board of directors of RTVE will be remunerated at the rate of 105,000 euros per year without counting supplements, exactly the same regime as before the government eliminated these jobs in 2012. Until now, the directors were paid 114,000 eurosas noted by the administration of Mariano Rajoy in its economic and budgetary impact report.
The current model (from 2012 to today) only reserved the exclusive regime for the interim president, Cascajosa Designwhile the other members of the Council carried out their usual functions.
Until now, there were 10 directors (plus the chairman) and they limited their remuneration to per diems depending on the meetings they attended, at a rate between 700 and 1,000 euros for each meeting. Now the body will increase its size to 15 members, which also means adding these fifteen positions to the number of company directors, which was 190 last year.
If we look at the positions held by some former councilors, their salaries were considerably higher. The social manager received 198,265.25 euros; that of General Content, 166,487.52 euros; that of Information, 166,122.52 euros; that of Education, Cultural and International Diversity, 172,210.89 euros; that of Production and Media, 188,932.06 euros; and the Secretary General 192,227.77 euros.
For its part, the mandate of the new directors remains in effect. six yearswith a new feature: they can only be re-elected once. The formula of their choice also changes and establishes a two-thirds majority of the Chambers, which would in principle force an agreement between the PSOE and the PP. However, if this support is not obtained in the first vote, it is reduced to an absolute majority in subsequent votes.
The negotiation
Since the approval of the decree in the Council of Ministers on October 22 until this Wednesday, there have been no negotiations between the two government parties, the PSOE and Sumar, and the rest of the groups of the so-called investiture majority. In reality, everything was linked a month before after the text arrived at Moncloa last week.
This was confirmed by one of the negotiators for this newspaper. “It was several weeks before, when the Executive contacted us,” he says.
Contacts began at the end of last September. It was then that the PSOE informed its usual allies that it intended to “unblock” the RTVE council, and that it had “a formula” that would give them all Vox within the council. of administration.
The Constitution establishes that royal decrees must only be approved in cases of “emergency”, but legislative custom has overcome this premise due to the customs of different governments. Especially for those of Pedro Sánchez, who broke all records thanks to the use of this extraordinary figure.
From the beginning, the PP refused to support the norm, because it meant de facto by leaving it out of the negotiation, reducing the necessary majorities and unbalancing the distribution between Congress and the Senate. But what the people did not know is that the PSOE had imagined this approach to “realign” the government’s partners, in the midst of negotiating the 2025 budgets.
From now on, ERC and Junts, PNV and Podemos will have a representative to the RTVE board of directors and will be able to influence its information line. “We do not give the vote for free,” explained a spokesperson for the Violets to this newspaper. “And with this, at least, we will remind public television that we exist.”
But it won’t just be about influence, it could also bring in money for like-minded production companies. The reform of the law imposed by this decree gives more powers to the council to tender contracts with production companies and even allows the person who occupies the presidency to make hiring decisions, at his discretion, as long as he are contracts of less than two million. euros per year.
Such speed is surprising not only in the validation of the decree, but also in the registration of the proposal of the 11 names presented on Wednesday by the PSOE, Sumar, ERC, Junts, PNV and Podemos. The entry of the document into the Lower House was officially sealed just an hour later of the vote. An extraordinary session, introduced the day before during the meeting of the Council of Spokespersons, already with the protest of the People’s Party, incapable of understanding such an “urgency to attack RTVE”.
Congress met for the vote with only 176 participantsgiven the boycott by PP and Vox of the holding of this extraordinary plenary session on a day when all other parliamentary activity had been suspended by DANA.
Thus, the image of a half-empty room recalled, in the words of a popular deputy, that of the Parliament of Catalonia in the days of September 2017, when the appeals were voted on. disconnection lawspreamble of the illegal referendum 1-O: “It is the process Spanish, which has already arrived”.
The PSOE and Sumar had affirmed during the meetings of the Council and the spokespersons, during the vacation requested by Miguel Tellado, spokesperson of the PP, that “control is one thing and legislation is another”, or that “ the deputies will not go to work.” “rescue” to justify maintaining the extraordinary plenary session.
Junts simply supported what “the majority” said. The rest of the government’s partners, however, complied with Moncloa’s wishes, designating Francina Armengol as “ultimately responsible” for the decision.
The advisors
This Wednesday, the PSOE and its partners registered a list of 11 candidates for councilor positions. Among the names are journalists such as Angelique Rubioregular collaborator of laSexta and former general director of Information Coordination of the Secretariat of State for Communication with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. She is currently director of The plural.
Also included Esther de la Matacurrent press chief for the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños.
Another candidate for the position of advisor is Jose Pablo Lopezformer content director of RTVE Corporation, dismissed at the suggestion of the former interim president, Elena López, with whom he had disagreements over the signing of David Broncano. López, in fact, would also be proposing to soon chair RTVE.
Also among the PSOE’s proposals are the singer-songwriter and former socialist councilor at Madrid City Hall Rosa LeonAnd Mercedes de Pablosformer director of Radio Canal Sur from 1996 to 2000. De Pablos She also managed other media and was appointed member of the Audiovisual Council of Andalusia representing the Andalusian PSOE between 2005 and 2010.
Sergi Sol is the ERC quota. He was responsible for communications for Oriol Junqueras when he was vice-president of the Generalitat of Catalonia. dSince 2020 he has collaborated in different media such as El Nacional.cat, TVE3, La Sexta or Catalunya Radio. He was also a member of the Advisory Council of RTVE (Catalonia) between 2008 and 2013.
The Junts quota, for its part, represents Miquel Calçada, alias Mikimotowell-known face of TV3, who appeared on the lists of the Junts pel Sí party in 2015. As for the PNV, its candidate is Maria Roncesvallesformer director of EiTB, Basque public radio and television.
Sumar, minority partner in the government coalition, proposed has Maria Therese Martinlinked to the Workers’ Commissions, as well as the journalist Marthe Ribasformer deputy of the Parliament of Catalonia for Esquerra Unida i Alternativa.
The name of Podemos is Mariano Muniesa de Cavedacollaborator of Canal Rouge. He has produced various programs on Onda Verde, on Cadena 100; at Los 40 Principales and RNE. On television, he presented rock programs on Onda 6.
After the 11 names retained by Congress, there are still four candidates to be nominated by the Senate, where the PP has an absolute majority.
