This Thursday, Congress ratified the partial renewal of the RTVE board of directors. The Lower House elected with 179 votes for and none against the 11 members of the higher management body of public radio and television that correspond to it, according to the legal reform approved a few weeks ago. Second, the government and its parliamentary partners secured the necessary absolute majority after Tuesday’s failed vote, in which the rule required two-thirds support. The PP and Vox were absent from the vote, but next week Feijóo’s party will use its own majority in the Senate to impose the four assigned names in the upper house.
The government and its partners have thus put an end to the open crisis of RTVE due to the resignations and successive departures from the Council, starting with the president, Elena Sánchez, due to the signing of David Broncano. The situation of poor governance has led to a new legal reform to allow the renewal of the management body with the current parliamentary majorities, and allow the Executive and its partners to determine who constitutes the majority of the Council.
After the agreement, the PSOE included in its quota the former director of RTVE and former Telemadrid, José Pablo López. It was he who was appointed to assume the presidency of the organization and until a few months ago he was the company’s content director and the main instigator, in terms of audience, of the signing successful of Broncano, but the tensions generated by the negotiation for the hiring of David Broncano caused his departure. The socialists also proposed singer-songwriter Rosa León, who already appeared on public television several decades ago, and Minister Félix Bolaños’ former communications director, Esther de la Mata. He also included journalist Angélica Rubio and Mercedes de Pablos Candón on his list.
Sumar proposed María Teresa Martín, linked to the workers’ commissions, and Marta Ribas, who is part of Esquerra Verde, a party located within the municipalities. Meanwhile, Junts proposed Miquel Calçada Olliveras within his quota, ERC proposed Sergi Sol, Podemos proposed Mariano Muniesa and PNV proposed María Roncevalles Solana. EH Bildu chose to stay out of distribution.
The PP and Vox stood up to Congress in the vote. Under the pretext that the parliamentary procedure was not paralyzed 15 days ago by the DANA of Valencia, the right chose to use a vote that it had previously lost to oppose the government and blame it for the catastrophe which caused more than 200 deaths and property damage amounting to billions.
But Feijóo is not going to miss the opportunity to occupy his own quota. The recent reform of the law determined that the Senate has the power to appoint four administrators of RTVE. The rule, as for Congress, establishes that if two-thirds of the House does not support the nominations in the first vote, it can be done by an absolute majority in the second.
The PP announced its candidates on Thursday, who will be those chosen thanks to its absolute majority. Those of Feijóo justify their participation in the process in which “RTVE cannot be left in the hands of [Pedro] Sánchez, must be a corporation serving the general interest and not serving the president of the government. This is what the Spanish deserve.
Despite this declaration of intentions, the PP opted for its proposal in favor of Eladio Jareño, an old acquaintance of RTVE who developed all his professional work in the shadow of the party that now leads the opposition.
