A long chain of disagreements and mistrust with the management leadership over the way the corporation is managed has put the president of RTVE, Elena Sánchez, on the ropes, who took office a year and a half ago – on the rebound and provisionally – after the abrupt resignation of José Manuel Pérez Tornero.
The internal crisis has extended to relations with the board of directors, which have become especially rough.
The two-way clash has worsened as a result of the plan to hire comedian David Broncano to lift the nights of TVE-1.
The echoes of this confrontation have resonated in La Moncloa, which has already questioned Sánchez's continuity at the helm of public radio and television.
“The Government has shown him the way out,” sources from the corporation say.
This increase in tension 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.
According to the law, five members, whose names were chosen by lottery, should be replaced in March.
Chance wanted the three members endorsed by the PP to appear in this first phase, one from the PSOE and another from the PNV.
The current council obtained the support of Congress, which appointed six members, and the Senate, which appointed four, after an agreement between PSOE, PP, Unidas Podemos and PNV.
These four formations clearly reached the two-thirds of the votes required by law.
Congress also has to fill the vacancy left by Pérez Tornero (who was part of the socialist quota) after his resignation in September 2022. Some political parties have already begun negotiations to set up a new council.
RTVE sources do not rule out that Sánchez will be evicted from the presidency in the same move.
Sánchez has this Thursday a parliamentary control commission.
But before the parties draw up the list of their candidates, the corporation's top official will face a decisive litmus test on Tuesday the 26th for her future at the head of the audiovisual group.
The board of directors will evaluate for the second time the hiring of comedian David Broncano's program after the stormy meeting last Monday.
In that session, the president debated the plan to seal a three-year agreement with the production company of La Resistencia, an interview space with an irreverent and daring style that Broncano currently presents on Movistar +.
The program, on the payment platform since 2018, is a co-production of Encofrados Encofrasa, the audiovisual firm founded by the comedian in collaboration with comedians Jorge Ponce and Ricardo Castella, and El Terrat, a company founded by Andreu Buenafuente and integrated into the Mediapro orbit.
The negotiation with TVE had been brewing for a month and with this offer, public television aspired to attract a young audience, bet on new narratives, gain visibility on social networks and generate a brand image.
But, above all, its objective was to have content capable of competing in the same time slot with
El hormiguero
, from Antena 3, a product that neither TVE nor Telecinco can overshadow.
The host of 'La Resistencia', David Broncano, on the set of the program.
Furthermore, for the public channel this format was significantly cheaper for each of the editions than, for example
, 4 stars,
which is broadcast after Telediario 2. Once consolidated in TVE's programming, the possibility was contemplated that the Broncano's program will be carried out on a set of the public network and with in-house workers.
It is currently being recorded in a Madrid theater.
The production company Encofrados Encofrasa wanted the alliance with TVE to be for five years, a time that the public channel considered excessive and reduced it to three.
That was the proposal that reached the council, although it was not defended, as is usual, by the director of general content, José Pablo López, but rather it was the president herself who carefully outlined the benefits of the project.
During that meeting, each of the directors expressed their opinion on the content, the production model and the cost of the program (14 million euros per season).
The members proposed by the PSOE, Ramón Colom and Concepción Cascajosa, spoke in favor, in addition to Roberto Lakidain, endorsed by Unidas Podemos, and the representative of the PNV, Juan José Baños.
Jenaro Castro, Carmen Sastre, Consuelo Aparicio (PP) and José Manuel Martín Medem (Unidas Podemos) stood against it.
Sources close to the counselor point out that “to everyone's astonishment,” the president opted to abstain and alleged that after listening to the different interventions she had “modulated” her position.
She thus ruined a project in which several months of negotiation had been invested.
Key date
This abstention generated a strong controversy within the council.
Castro settled it with a new proposal: studying the possibility of reducing the duration of the contract with Broncano's production company from three years to one.
An issue that will be resolved in the session scheduled for Tuesday the 26th.
The president's change of opinion gave another twist to the already tense relations with the team that occupies the first line of management, which the next day placed Sánchez on the management committee.
Only Verónica Ollé, cabinet director and one of her few unconditional allies, attended this meeting.
Six other members, including the general secretary, Alfonso Morales;
The director of news content, Pep Vilar, and the director of general content, José Pablo López, declined to attend an appointment called a few meters from their offices.
“It was his way of expressing his discomfort with the way the corporation is being governed,” internal sources maintain.
They add that the president has bypassed the leadership and has created a “management committee B”, made up of people she strictly trusts, who makes the big decisions.
“There, in that very small hard core, everything is debated and then it is already cooked to the committee.”
Asked about the clashes that broke out within the corporation, an official RTVE spokesperson declined to comment.
The disagreements in Prado del Rey have become especially evident between the presidency and the person in charge of content, José Pablo López, who joined the public channel two years ago after his time as general director of Telemadrid.
Before he was linked to Trece and La Sexta.
If
La Resistencia
finally lands on public television, under one condition or another, the balance will have tipped in the obvious battle being fought on RTVE.
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