Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and opposing party leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba have decided to wait until June in order to recast the RTVE board or advisers and name its replacement CEO. Their decision would leave RTVE without a leader for at least five more months, something that Rajoy is not willing to do, because the company would struggle to carry out 200 million in cutbacks and would further delay ousting key leaders that were appointed during Zapatero's regime, namely Fran Llorente, the TVE news director.
Faced with making a difficult "rapid fire" decision with Rubalcba, a decision designed to propel changes in the heart of RTVE, Rajoy's government wants to modify the company's by-laws so that they can elect a temporary CEO from a group of current directors. This move would solve RTVE's unique situation of not having a CEO since July 2011 when Alberto Oliart resigned from his position due to a series of scandals related to his management of the company.
Since that time, directors have rotated in heading the board of directors. The rotating manager position has wielded no executive power. Managers have held board meetings and set daily discussion topics.
Rajoy's does not want to wait until June to name a new CEO and intends to change Article 31 of RTVE by-laws. The article dictates that lacking an official CEO, RTVE directors can vote on a leader that will not have executive power, but can stand in as a permanent leader of the board of directors.
The modification could be approved easily during the next Cabinet meeting, granting some RTVE executive powers to Prime Minister Rajoy. SEPI, the primary shareholder in RTVE, would likely give the green light to this measure.
The next step is to hold a vote and select a temporary CEO among RTVE directors. The current board is comprised of five members from conservative parties (four from the PP and one from the CiU) and five from the progressives (two from the PSOE and one each from the IU, ERC and UGT). Even though there is a potential for a voting tie, we have to keep in mind that the acting CEO wields a double-weighted vote and that next month a PP member will preside over the board (this month CiU member Josep Manuel Silva is presiding).
