Three presidents in three years. The instability in Prado del Rey has become a hallmark of public radio and television. After a turbulent meeting, the board of directors of RTVE this Wednesday appointed the socialist member Concepción Cascajosa as the new interim president for a period of six months. During that time, the management body of the entity trusts that the two major parties, PP and PSOE, will reach an agreement for the renewal of five of its members whose mandate has expired this week and fill the position of the previous president José Manuel Pérez Tornero. , who resigned from the council when he tendered his resignation. Cascajosa takes over from Elena Sánchez, dismissed the day before in a row in which the head of content, José Pablo López, also left office. And she has an enormous challenge before her: managing a stormy council, in an unstable balance and very difficult to govern despite the six-month truce agreed upon after 48 hours of vertigo.
Cascajosa (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, 45 years old) is a doctor in Audiovisual Communication and president of the RTVE Equality Observatory and has achieved white smoke thanks to the votes of the members elected by the PSOE, Unidas Podemos and PNV. The three PP councilors have spoken out against her, while Elena Sánchez (from the socialist quota) has abstained. The council rejected the popular proposal that the interim presidency be held on a rotating basis. In a bizarre twist, the PP even proposed that the criterion for starting these relays was age, which awarded the first section to Ramón Colom. But with that ordeal cleared, the majorities that have given Cascajosa the presidency are very fragile. It is not clear what Elena Sánchez, who has threatened to resign, will do. Nor the role of José Manuel Martín Medem, one of the councilors appointed at the time by Unidas Podemos and who belongs to the PCE, who has played a very active role in the succession of dismissals in recent hours.
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The board of directors of RTVE appoints Concepción Cascajosa as the new interim president of the corporation
Politics continues to play a crucial role in the future of RTVE. To obtain the five votes that would break the blockade, the parties have carried out a frenetic round of negotiations, especially in the socialist environment and the formations to the left of the PSOE. The proposed counselor of Unidas Podemos was the only one who unwaveringly supported Elena Sánchez on Tuesday. At first he was reluctant to choose Cascajosa. According to sources from the corporation, Martín Medem demanded the departure of the entity's general secretary, Alfonso Morales, to give his support to the candidate. In the first round, he did not reach the necessary votes. During a break, the secretary general asked Martín Medem what he wanted to support Cascajosa and he responded: “Your head.” And the order was consummated. The counselor endorsed by Unidas Podemos changed his position and Morales presented his irrevocable resignation. Morales had submitted to a vote of confidence the day before, which he passed easily. But Martín Medem demanded his fall to give his support to Cascajosa, and Morales fell. The presence of Martín Medem on the council, along with that of the outgoing president, Elena Sánchez, could be a source of instability if they add their votes to those of the three PP councilors.
Cascajosa's great objective is to pacify the council. But in the short term she is forced to rebuild the presidency team: the departure of the general secretary came just one day after the council dismissed the director of general content, José Pablo López. In just 24 hours, the management committee has lost two of its strong men after an unprecedented collusion. The new balance of forces could make the company ungovernable, according to the sources consulted. The question hanging over the rest of the management committee is how long they will remain in office. They fear they will fall one by one if the clamp of the three PP councilors, on the one hand, and Elena Sánchez and Martín Medem, on the other, is consumed.
Elena Sánchez Caballero, during her appearance before the Joint Committee of the Senate, on March 7, 2024. Borja Sánchez-Trillo (EFE)
This open war between senior management and Elena Sánchez has culminated in the biggest crisis experienced at RTVE in recent years, which has been dragging on since the resignation a year and a half ago of José Manuel Pérez Tornero, elected by consensus of PP, PSOE, Unidas Podemos and PNV, in the same package as all the counselors.
Sánchez's management has been marked by a hidden battle with his management leadership. The lack of understanding has been striking. The former president has complained insistently that the senior management team, which includes the head of news, Pep Vilar, and content, José Pablo López, is an inheritance received from her predecessor. During the appearance at the RTVE control commission, before deputies and senators, last week she took the opportunity to remember that the members of the management committee were appointed by Pérez Tornero. She argued that by having the rank of interim president she did not enjoy the prerogatives of her predecessor and that, if she had had them, perhaps she would have confirmed the executive leadership "or perhaps not."
The opposition took the opportunity to add fuel to the fire and asked the reasons why the organizational chart was not modified to appoint an RNE director. Sánchez alleged that he did not receive a firm mandate to undertake the changes, thus leaving the responsibility on the council. Sources from the corporation assure that the president had designed a parallel steering committee, in which only one person from the current leadership appeared (Verónica Ollé, her Chief of Staff), but that she never formally brought these appointments to the approval of the body. . “He wanted to laminate us all. She said we weren't her team. She called us incompetent, useless and lazy,” states a member of senior management. And he adds: "As she did not get the Government to force our departure, she announced to Moncloa that she was resigning, but 48 hours later she rectified and decided not to resign."
The poor harmony worsened after the elections of July 23 and the formation of the coalition Government. “Elena Sánchez contacted leaders of the PP and the PSOE to guarantee that she was going to be named president by Congress,” sources from the corporation maintain. She would thus cease to be interim and her functions would be equated to those of Pérez Tornero. She hoped that the ruling party would make it easier for her to change the organizational chart to dismiss the entire leadership. “She reproached the PSOE for not doing anything,” explain the same sources. Nor have the popular parliamentarians shown signs of support. Several committees have requested Sánchez's resignation after describing RTVE as “Spanish radio manipulation.”
Another source of tension between the president and the management team arose around the content. The head of the public entity had reservations about contracting with some production companies and opposed the incorporation of certain collaborators. She vetoed, for example, Belén Esteban as a jury for a dance format and imposed the purchase of films from producer Enrique Cerezo for three years and nine million euros. Sánchez wanted to make his disagreements with the person responsible for content clear in Congress by admitting that “some formats” that have been broadcast have raised “some doubts” about their suitability on free-to-air public television, “and particularly for a medium with the trajectory, experience and tradition of RTVE”.
The last episode of this series of disagreements has been the plan to hire comedian David Broncano to broadcast his program
La Resistencia
(currently on Movistar Plus+) on La 1 after the evening news, in the same time slot as
El hormiguero
(Antena 3) and
El intermedia
(La Sexta). The hard core of the management committee had reached an agreement to hire Broncano for three years, but when it came to giving the go-ahead at the council meeting on the 11th, Sánchez abstained and the contract fell apart.
Six members of the leadership of the public entity, upset by this lurch, stood up to Sánchez at the management committee meeting the next day. The content manager was accused of being the “ringleader” of the “rioters.” And the president achieved the dismissal of José Pablo López in this Tuesday's meeting with the essential support of the PP and Martín Medem.
To move forward with the Broncano program, the PP proposed limiting the duration of the contract from three years to one (at a rate of 14 million euros per course). In parallel, the president negotiated directly with Broncano to reduce it to two years, according to corporation sources, although hours later she broke the pact with a WhatsApp message. And the next day she summoned Broncano to hand him a contract that contemplated only one year's duration. The imbroglio has reached such a point that the council has postponed any decision until next week. Already with Concepción Cascajosa in charge and with the unknown of knowing who will sit on the steering committee.
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