The board of directors of RTVE resumed this Wednesday, after a frenetic round of political negotiations, the meeting that was interrupted yesterday when it failed to elect a new president of the corporation after the dismissal of Elena Sánchez, who took office a year and a half ago. . Her departure, which occurred shortly after the board dismissed the director of general content, José Pablo López, crowns an open war between the interim president and the management committee. Sources from the corporation affirm that in recent months “there has been a brutal deterioration in relations.” The climax of this internal crisis has been the plan to hire David Broncano to broadcast the program on La 1 The resistance, currently on Movistar +.
During yesterday afternoon, intense negotiating activity was carried out to unblock the situation and reach today's meeting with a viable proposal. Some of the councilors considered that the presidency of RTVE should fall to a representative of the progressive majority that supports the Government. The pressure was on getting José Manuel Martin Medem, elected at the time by Unidas Podemos but who is on his own (he was the only one who supported Elena Sánchez in the vote that decided her dismissal), to support the candidacy of Concepción Cascajosa, who presides. the RTVE Equality Observatory and which has the support of the coalition Government.
Born in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) in 1979, Cascajosa has a doctorate in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Seville. She is a professor of Audiovisual Communication in the Department of Communication of the Carlos III University of Madrid, she has been director of the Master in Film and TV Scriptwriting and vice dean of the Studies of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication. She is the author or editor of nine books and one hundred academic publications.
The members of the PP, in turn, initially opted to support Ramón Colom, who has sometimes been critical of the decisions of the rest of the councilors endorsed by the socialists, and also considered the option of Juan José Baños, representative of the PNV. . Against both of them it weighs that precisely this month his mandate expires. Unlike the rest of the members, Colom and Baños, along with the three representatives of the PP, must be renewed after three years in office compared to the six years in office of the rest of the members. Sources from the corporation consider that “it would not be logical” for councilors whose mandate has legally expired to occupy the presidency, despite the fact that as long as they are not replaced they continue to be part of the organization with all their functions. At the meeting, the council also has on the table that the presidency be rotating for periods of three or four months.
With the election of a new president, a crisis whose trigger has been a battle over the management model between Sánchez and most of his management leadership, particularly with López, is patched. In Tuesday's session, he was accused of being the “ringleader” of the “mutiny” managers. Some members of the council requested his appearance so that he could defend himself against the accusations, but in the end he was not required to give his version. Senior management, with the exception of Verónica Ollé, head of Sánchez's Cabinet, considered that she had been betrayed by the president by not supporting Broncano's contract on the board, endorsed by the majority of the members of the management committee.
In this Wednesday's session, several TVE program contracts will be evaluated, including that of Broncano, and the consolidation of the 2023 accounts will be analyzed. For the current year, the company had planned a budget of 1,430 million euros, which contemplates an increase of 130 million for the production of content in the centers of Catalonia and the Canary Islands and to meet the expenses of the Paris Olympic Games and the Euro Cup. The fact that the General State Budgets are extended prevents RTVE from having these funds. To cover sporting commitments, the Government will have to approve an extraordinary amount of at least 111 million, according to company sources.
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