The plenary session of the Congress of Deputies approved this Thursday, in a second vote, the eleven candidates to the Board of Directors of RTVE agreed by the PSOE and its partners in Government. The decree published by the Government regarding the renewal of the public broadcaster’s governance established that in a first vote three quarters of the votes were necessary to approve the list, but lowered these requirements to a majority in a second vote, which is the one that has taken place now.
Thus, in a vote of which PP and Vox were absentexcluded from the list by the PSOE and its partners, 179 votes were cast in favormore than the 176 needed for approval.
The eleven elected to sit on the Board of Directors. of RTVE will be Miquel Calçada Olivella (proposed by Junts), Esther de la Mata Ahedo (PSOE), Marta Ribas (Sumar), Mercedes de Pablos Candón (PSOE), Rosa León Conde (PSOE), José Pablo López Sánchez (PSOE), María Teresa Martín del Caz (Sumar), Mariano Muniesa Caveda (Podemos), Angélica Rubio (PSOE), María Solana (PNV) and Sergi Sol i Bros (ERC).
They will be joined by four more councilors, who will be elected in the Senate. Today the PP, which has a majority in that chamber, presented its list, which includes the former director of TVE between 2016 and 2019, Eladio Jareñoin addition to Rubén Moreno Palanques, Marina Vila Menor and Ignacio Ruiz Jarabo.
As did those who will probably be their peers, these four names will go through the Suitability Committee, where they will defend their candidacy and on November 19 a first vote will be held in the Senate. Expectedly, they will not be elected in this first election, but they will be elected in the election of November 21.where the PP and its partners could obtain a majority for its approval.
The new Board of Directors of RTVE will thus be made up by 15 members, who will have a six-year term of office, from which the Chairman will be chosen (foreseeably José Pablo López, former Director of Contents at RTVE) that will have almost full powersthanks to the Government’s decree, to appoint and dismiss senior officials and even to sign contracts of up to two million euros without the need to consult the Board.
Among their intentions, as they have been advancing, is that of greatly increasing the presence of the Catalan language in RTVE, even creating a La 2 entirely in that language for its disconnection in Catalonia.The budget of the territorial centers and the production in co-official languages should be reinforced, as well as allocating more budget to Catalan production companies.