Congress gives the green light to the Government decree to reduce the majorities in the election of RTVE councilors

He Congress of Deputies has validated this Wednesday the decree law approved by the Government in the Council of Ministers to reduce the majorities in the election of members of the RTVE Board of Directors. The Socialist Party (PSOE), Sumar, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Junts per Catalunya, EH Bildu, Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), Podemos and Canarian Coalition voted in favor. People’s Party (PP) and Vox They have been absent from the Chamber in protest for not having suspended the plenary session for DANA victims and Nestor Rego (Galego Nationalist Bloc) has voted against.

They were not present at the vote either. Alberto Catalán (Navarro People’s Union) or Agueda Micó and Alberto Ibanezboth of Commitmentswho also consider that the Plenary Session should not have been held, as they have confirmed to Public.

In any case, the decree has gone ahead. Fundamentally, it establishes two changes with respect to the previous legislative text. On the one hand, it contemplates that the president of the public entity can be appointed in Congress by absolute majority if the two-thirds vote does not go ahead. On the other hand, add five members to the Board of Directors of RTVE. They will go from 10 to 15. 11 of them will be chosen by the Lower House, while four will be chosen by the Senate.

This is a series of changes that according to Óscar López, Minister of Digital Transformation, grant “pluralism, stability and professionalism“to the Board of Directors of the public entity.

Day marked by DANA

The parliamentary day has been marked from the beginning by the victims of DANA, which has been particularly cruel in Valencia and Albacete. At 1 p.m., more than 60 victims only in the capital of the Country Valencia. For all these reasons, the PP has requested to suspend the plenary sessions this Wednesday. The president of Congress, Francina Armengolhas extended the ordinary plenary session by one week, in which the control session to the Government and some non-legislative points, but it has decided, in accordance with the position defended by the PSOE and against the PP, keep the extraordinary. It is in that second plenary session in which the decree has been validated.

The Socialist Party, for its part, has given three reasons for suspending the control session and not the extraordinary plenary session. On the one hand, party sources have indicated that “the control sessions are based on a crossing of reproaches“which they consider disrespectful towards the victims. In addition, the ministers present at the control session have ability to intervene in the measures to alleviate the effects of DANA, so the socialists do consider that they should be released from their presence in the control session.

Instead, they say, “the legislative activity does not have to stop”, since it is the “obligation” of the deputies to remain in their position and carry out their activity in the Chamber.