Figo criticizes the “state” leadership of RTVE after not attending the election debate

the next day to He did not attend the electoral debate organized by RTVE for the four main partiesIn which Pedro Sanchez, Yolanda Diaz and Santiago Abascal participated on Wednesday night, Alberto Núñez Figo brought charges against the Public Radio and Television Administration. The leader of the People’s Party explained his refusal to attend any debate on the public channel, arguing that the format he wanted was not accepted – a seven-person debate, with minority forces, despite the fact that it was also held last week. With Parliament’s spokesmen criticizing that the House Board was, in his opinion, in a ‘loyalty’ mode.

In an interview with RNE, Feijóo questioned the leadership of public radio and television. “I would like RTVE to have a more consensual direction in the future and Not as complicated as it has been in recent years. First the management was agreed upon, later the RTVE head resigned, which was agreed upon and now there is a legal situation that I do not share. It seems to me that public channels always have the seal of independence, and it’s good to go into it.” The current leadership of RTVE is the result of an agreement in February 2021 between the two major parties, PSOE and PP, and is one of the few that has been closed throughout the legislature. In September 2022, he resigned José Manuel Perez Tornero from his position as President of the Foundation after losing the support of a very important sector of the Board of Directors, which is closest to PSOE and Unidas Podemos, who accused him of surrendering to PP and the area around himself with executives – close to this party.

Feijóo stressed the necessary “independence” of public channels, but PP has vented its ire against RTVE after a journalist from home last Monday, Silvia Intxaurrondo, the popular leader refuted in an interview his false statements about pensions. After that engagement forced Feijóo to acknowledge publicly, 48 hours later, that the journalist was right, the leaders of the People’s Leadership attacked public television for its alleged ideological bias, despite the fact that the leadership is divided between PP and PSOE. Deputy Institutional Secretary and Court Counsellor of Figo, Esteban Gonzalez-Ponce, He asserted that RTVE “will lose the election”.. And he stated on Twitter: “I hope that the leaders of that party will resign the next day, as it happens in all parties when they lose the elections for which they are running. You better not go. I don’t see her and I don’t go.”

In Galicia, from the opposition, as now, Vigo accused the Galician Television Radio Company (CRTVG) of being in the service of the leftist coalition led by Xunta. In 2011, it passed a law that the public company should not be politicized, but it never adhered to it. This rule says that the president of the CRTVG must be elected by a qualified majority, i.e. by unanimity with the opposition, although Feijóo has found a way to circumvent this requirement: the same person he appointed when he became president continues in office. Nor has a professional committee been formed to protect the freedom and independence of journalists, although it is stipulated in this law. Because of these abuses, regional radio and television workers staged the longest protest in Spain since 2018 against Xunta’s interference in their media work: Black Fridays. The company has even been convicted of retaliating against an enslaved journalist by illegally punishing him, and Its boss and seven other managers are accused of harassing another worker in the workplace.

Despite the fact that he decided not to participate in the debate last night, this Thursday Feijóo called for the debates in the elections to be regulated by law in the future. Something that might have kept him from leaving the chair empty yesterday. The audience for Sanchez, Abascal and Diaz was a millionaire: Reached 4.1 million viewers and a 34.6% screen share.

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The leader of the People’s Party justified not accepting this discussion under the pretext of the formula. “I didn’t participate in RTVE because The Socialist candidate said no to the seven-day debateFeijóo explained that he wanted to avoid being framed with Vox. We thought it good to hold a debate among all the forces necessary to install the Socialist candidate. It was not reasonable, he stressed, to choose only some of them, and for the president and vice-president to debate with each other without the rest of the parliamentary coalition partners: the Bieldo party, the ERC and the Puigdemont. ” Catalonia was not part of the block of stable partners of the progressive government.

For Feijóo, yesterday’s discussion offered “nothing new” and, moreover, He congratulated himself because he was “the most martyred person.”“Yesterday we saw three parties whose goal was not to win the elections, but whoever wins does not rule,” he said, in response to Sanchez, whom he accused yesterday of not wanting to participate because he was “ashamed” of appearing with Abascal. “I don’t know if Mr. Sanchez was ashamed to be with Otegi, with ERC and with Puigdemont,” he counterattacked. “Yesterday we saw a debate between the candidates for opposition leaders,” he quipped.

The leader of the People’s Party is trying in the last days of the campaign to distance himself from Vox. Not only with his absence from the debate, but also with his speech. In the last phase, he asserted that he did not want to rule with the ultra-right, despite the fact that he had ratified the pacts of his barons with the ultras. “My goal is not to agree with Vox,” he assured RNE today without excluding anything. At another time, he insisted that if he had to agree with the alt-right, “sexual violence is an insurmountable red line.”

Feijóo has also defended himself from the criticism he has received for his false statements both face to face and in interviews such as those on RTVE, claiming that he has been in politics for “30 years” and therefore has “traceability”. The People’s Party is trying to adjust the campaign framework on Figo’s problems with its word and today is publishing aggressive election ads in the press against Sanchez and his “lies”. “Hearing Mr. Sanchez talking about lies is like hearing Mr. Otegi talking about respecting the victims,” ​​Figo criticized.

The Galician politician resumed campaigning aggressively after the break on Wednesday which he attributed to severe back pain. Instead, today he returns to the rallies tomorrow (Valencia) and afternoon (Madrid) and undergoes three interviews. Valencia, Vigo again attacked the election date, July 23, and promised that, if he governed, he would pass a law preventing elections from taking place in July and August except in exceptional cases. As President of Galicia, although the epidemic was still present, Feijóo called the polls for 12 July.

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