The RTVE unions will present a lawsuit against the Government's maneuver to elevate Elena Sánchez

The representatives of the workers of RTVE will denounce the modification of the statutes of the public radio and television that the Government has supported in the Council of Ministers to provide full powers to the interim president Elena Sánchez.

The Intercentros Committee, which brings together the union representation, has approved by an absolute majority "the challenge of the modifications of the Statutes of the RTVE corporation by SEPI" last week, after the support of the Executive to this operation in the public chain .

This translates into a lawsuit that will request precautionary measures to stop the process initiated to attribute executive powers to Elena Sánchez after the departure of José Manuel Pérez Tornero from the presidency.

While waiting for the lawyers, the unions hope that the lawsuit can be filed next week.

This movement, which adds pressure to Sánchez's reconstruction position, is led by the UGT, SI and USO unions, which occupy 8 of the 12 chairs of the Inter-Center Committee of the corporation's workers.

For their part, CCOO and CGT have opted for abstention.

"The process with which the Statutes of RTVE have been modified, granting the Presidency of the Board of Directors, the Presidency of the corporation including all its powers, against the report of the lawyers of the Congress on the agreements adopted by the council of the Administration of RTVE of 2011", reads a statement from this union representation, which also understands that "an illegality is being committed and the possible legislative modification and the appointment of the presidency of the corporation are being stolen from the congress".

These workers' representatives refer to a letter in which the General Secretariat of the Lower House already recommended in 2011 not to carry out a similar reformulation of the position of president, on account of the resignation of Alberto Oliart.

"The nature of the law of the norm that attributes the powers

regarding those that are attributed directly to the presidency of the corporation by Law 16/2006 [ of RTVE]", collected that text, to which this newspaper has had access.

At that time, a rotating presidency was established (that of Elena Sánchez is not), until with a change of government, from the PSOE of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to the PP of Mariano Rajoy, in 2012 the law was changed so that the president of RTVE could be elected without a reinforced parliamentary majority of two thirds.

Sáenz de Santamaría considered the lack of a president to be "very serious" and the Socialists, already in opposition, described the "popular" measure as an "institutional coup."

In 2017, the need for a two-thirds majority in the first vote was recovered, although the door was opened to an absolute majority with the support of half of the parliamentary groups in the second vote, all within a public contest.

Pérez Tornero embodies the result of that consensus: appointed in 2021 at the proposal of the PSOE as a councilor (like Elena Sánchez herself), he obtained the approval of the PP to become president, an unprecedented pact in this legislature between the two big parties, according to the which also joined United We Can and PNV, in short, all the formations that later proposed members for the Board of Directors of RTVE.

However, Sánchez was appointed director and now acts as president on an interim basis, thanks to a vote won within the Board of Directors, and without that parliamentary procedure to occupy a presidency.

Government and SEPI try to make her functions correspond to those of president of the corporation and not only with those of president of the Council, which in principle would correspond to her as interim, a path that has met with strong criticism from the political opposition and among the representatives of Workers.

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