The RTVE crisis worsens after the dismissal of the interim president

Elena Sánchez had been in office for a year and a half, at the proposal of the PSOE, after the resignation of José Manuel Pérez Tornero, in September 2022, who had reached this position by consensus after an agreement between PP and PSOE. Sánchez was dismissed after she herself changed the agenda of this ordinary call and proposed the dismissal of the director of General Contents, as sources consulted by this newspaper later confirmed.

After the dismissal of López, who already describes himself as former director of General Content at RTVE in his X account, events precipitated. Roberto Lakidain, one of the two councilors proposed by Unidas Podemos, proposed voting on the dismissal of the interim president. The three councilors proposed by the PP (Jenaro Castro, Carmen Sastre and Consuelo Aparicio), the other two councilors proposed by the PSOE (Ramón Colom and Concepción Cascajosa), and Lakidain himself agreed in favor of her dismissal. The result? Six votes in favor, one against, by the other councilor proposed by Unidas Podemos, José Manuel Martín Medem, from the PCE and now integrated into Sumar, and one abstention, that of the councilor proposed by the PNV, Juan José Baños.

Reactions

The UGT union at RTVE reacted early in the afternoon to the dismissal of Elena Sánchez and released a statement in which it asked the parliamentary groups of the Congress and the Senate “not to return to temporary formulas to get by.” They asked for an “urgent meeting” to reach the necessary consensus for the appointment of the council members who have become vacant due to the expiration of their mandate, as well as the one that became vacant after the dismissal of Tornero and the one that “could foreseeably also become vacant.” after the dismissal of Sánchez.

And this crisis occurs just when it is time for the renewal of half of the council, whose mandate is reduced to three years, compared to six for the rest of the members. The law establishes that in March five members, whose names were chosen by draw, should be replaced: the three councilors of the PP, one of the PSOE and the one of the PNV. However, in yesterday's meeting, the body turned a deaf ear to UGT's request and opted for the eight members to remain on the council, given that they have not reached an agreement to renew them, and for the presidency to be rotating. among these eight council members.

By the time this last decision was made, Elena Sánchez had already left the council, but the former interim president remains part of it and will only lose her right to vote if she herself resigns from this position. This Tuesday, in fact, she announced the delegation of her vote in Medem.

The dismissal of José Pablo López

Much earlier, early in the morning, the dismissal of José Pablo López became effective, a decision that was reached with the vote in favor of the president herself, those of the three councilors proposed by the PP and that of one of the two councilors proposed by Unidas Podemos, José Manuel Martín Medem (PCE). The other two councilors proposed by the PSOE voted against his dismissal, the councilor proposed by the PNV and the other councilor proposed by Unidas Podemos. Ione Belarra herself clarified, via Twitter, that Martín Medem was voting on a personal level and not following party orders.

The case of David Broncano

In reality, this first vote of the tense day was settled in the same way as the one two weeks ago that managed to postpone the possible hiring of David Broncano and his team by the public entity to bring a format similar to 'The Resistance' to the 'access prime time' on TVE's La 1. The objective of the Corporation was to stand up to 'El hormiguero' by Pablo Motos, broadcast by Antena 3, currently the most successful television program in our country.

The offer that was raised to the board of directors a couple of weeks ago involved signing for three years, at a rate of 14 million euros per season, the production company of Broncano, Ricardo Castella and Jorge Ponce, Encofrados Encofrasa, with its entire team at complete. However, the disagreement of the members of the Board of Directors over the duration of the contract and the total budget of the project led to postponing their decision until today's meeting in which, finally, everything was blown up.

According to Efe, the proposal that was brought to the body on this occasion was for a two-year contract, although with the option of canceling it at the end of the first year if it does not reach 7.5% audience share. This fight then highlighted the open confrontation between Elena Sánchez and José Pablo López. A confrontation that is not limited only to the former president's clashes with the former director of General Contents, but also with other members of senior management. So much so that a couple of weeks ago, according to some information, the managers stood up to the former president during a meeting in protest of Elena Sánchez's “lack of trust” in her work. If we add to that the deep division in the board of directors, the good progress of the Corporation seems impossible.