The Provincial Electoral Board of Madrid has ordered Telemadrid to stop using expressions such as “that Sánchez”, which it used in a tweet about the President of the Government, in order to guarantee the information neutrality of the public channel. The decision of the body that ensures the cleanliness of the elections comes after a complaint from the Madrid PSOE in the framework of the European elections on June 9, and finds regional television in a delicate moment. First, because in April he had to rectify information about the president’s wife, Begoña Gómez. Second, because the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, will give her approval to a new general director before July. And third, because a source from the Madrid PSOE advances that Juan Lobato’s team will be vigilant in case “disrespect towards the Government of Spain and the president” is issued.
“We abide by what the electoral board says,” summarizes a Telemadrid spokesperson, who recalls that the Electoral Board has decided that there is no reason to remove the content from the website or open a sanctioning file against public television (for this reason, the PSOE has appealed).
At the end of April, a tweet from the official Telemadrid account caused a heated reaction among several deputies of the regional Assembly. “That Sánchez who now complains about the tension, treats his rivals this way,” read a text that refers to the complaints of the President of the Government against the toxic environment that presides over national politics, and that redirects to a video in the who is seen criticizing political adversaries “with unusual harshness” and “bronco style,” according to the presenter.
Although there are public representatives who show their indignation by responding to the message itself (“But what kind of public television is Ayuso creating?” writes Alejandro Sánchez, Equo deputy integrated into Más Madrid) the PSOE goes further and denounces what happened to the electoral board.
“The message,” reads that letter, which EL PAÍS accessed, “redirects to the website of the public television channel, where there is a news item that has a video hosted that offers partisan information (…), with absolute lack of objectivity, biased and partisan referring to the President of the Government and Secretary General of the PSOE, which breaks the principles of political and social pluralism, equality, proportionality and informational neutrality that should inspire the electoral process.”
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The complaint was unsuccessful because the electoral board considered that the content published by Telemadrid has no impact on the European elections of June 9, “so its withdrawal or the initiation of sanctioning proceedings is not appropriate.” However, the election oversight body did issue a warning to Madrid public television that reads as a kind of warning to sailors with the elections already on the horizon.
“Notwithstanding the above,” the resolution reads, “regarding the expression “Ese Sánchez,” it is considered that the use of this colloquial demonstrative adjective may have a meaning of contempt, as indicated in the Royal Dictionary. Academy of the Spanish Language, for which the public entity RADIO TELEVISIÓN ESPAÑOLA, SAU is urged [sic]in order to guarantee due informative neutrality, to refrain from using terms or expressions of the same nature in the future.
A top-ranking government source defends that the regional executive does not influence public television with the following argument: “The star presenter of the network [María Rey] president of the Madrid Press Association, who has criticized Miguel Ángel Rodríguez [jefe de gabinete de Díaz Ayuso que amenazó al diario.es e impulsó un bulo sobre dos informadores de EL PAÍS]…and there it continues.”
In any case, the interest of Díaz Ayuso’s team in controlling the entity is summarized in the three reforms of the law that regulates it that the president has undertaken since 2021. As a result of the last one, the baroness will strengthen her influence over television and public radio before July, when the new general director is elected.
“That is decided by the Assembly,” smiles this government interlocutor, who knows that the parliamentary commission to which he refers will barely confirm, thanks to the majority of the PP, the suitability of a candidate who has the prior approval of the regional president. This particularity is one of the reasons that has led the PSOE to appeal the new regulations before the Constitutional Court, which has already accepted the appeal for processing.
Deaths in residences
It is not the only conflict of a Madrid nature that the different electoral boards are facing on the occasion of the European elections. Thus, the PP has achieved that the Madrid Zone Electoral Board has demanded that Más Madrid remove the tarps that it has hung in two points of the city remembering the 7,291 deaths that occurred in the residences during the worst of the pandemic. Manuela Bergerot’s party must also remove any message on social networks, brochures or posters that refer to these banners.
In this way, both the PP and the Board consider that these messages are electoral propaganda at a time when it is not appropriate to do so, since they repeat slogans typical of the regional opposition, despite the fact that the acronym of any party does not appear nor is it requested. the vote for no one.
For its part, Más Madrid rejects this interpretation, and argues that the posters “are part of the ordinary activity of the Mas Madrid political party, in the exercise of its constitutionally recognized functions.” For this reason, Bergerot’s party has decided to appeal to the Provincial Electoral Board against the order to remove the tarps.
Furthermore, according to Más Madrid, some agents from the Municipal Police of the Moratalaz district issued a complaint bulletin on Tuesday, April 29, against the banner displayed in La Elipa Park, alleging that it violates the City Council’s Municipal Outdoor Advertising Ordinance for containing a message. contrary “to the dignity of people and constitutional values.”
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