• TV3 They denounce for scorn in a court of Barcelona to the presenters of TV3 for mocking the Virgen del Rocío
  • Catalonia Colau comes out in defense of TV3 and endorses the parody about the Virgen del Rocío

Three contracts for a total of 2,288,866 euros were those that RTVE signed between 2020 and 2021 with the producer of the Easter controversy, Minority Absolute, the producer behind the mockery on TV3 to the Virgen del Rocío.

However, RTVE has not been the only public entity from which it has received aid or that has supported the pro-independence production company of Toni Soler, protagonist of various controversies for anti-Spanish gags: the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), an autonomous body attached to the Secretary of State for Culture, too.

While the controversy over the mockery of the program is Passant, also produced by Minority Absolute and presented by Toni Soler and Jair Domínguez, continues to give to talk after the criticism received and the complaint for scorn presented this Tuesday by the Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers in a court in Barcelona, this newspaper has learned of the agreements signed by public entities with said producer.

The complaint, to which EL MUNDO has had access, points out that the actress, characterized as the Virgen del Rocío, "flirted with one of the directors of the program, even sending him a kiss and exclaiming "handsome!" and asking "are you with the traffic light green?" and "What about you? You who are more mature, but I do not disgust anything, eh?". In this way, he immediately said: "I'm hotter than a churrero's stick."

Meanwhile, the presenter and independence activist Toni Soler and his collaborator, Jair Domínguez, laughed with a beating jaw. The imitator complained about the costume of the Virgin, which she branded as "rococo" while by comparison she said that the Virgin of Montserrat was "minimalist".

But it is not the first controversy or the first anti-Spanish mockery surrounding this producer, creator of programs such as Pòlonia or Està passant itself, both broadcast on TV3. In fact, this production company signed contracts worth almost five million euros with the Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Àudiovisuals (CCMA), the entity that manages the public audiovisual media of the Generalitat.

Image of the documentary of the producer Minority Absolute for RTVE. RTVE

This production company obtained financing from RTVE for two films El maestro que promesa el mar, released this year, and Regreso a EGB, by Mario Montero, and the documentary España el siglo XX en color.

For the first film Absolute Minority received from the public chain 484,000 euros, for Return to EGB, 786,500 euros and for the documentary, 1,018,366 euros, which was not only the highest amount of the agreements with RTVE but the content of the same surprises after the numerous anti-Spanish controversies in which various programs of Toni Soler's producer have been involved.

The documentary premiered on La 2 in December 2022 and was an "ambitious historical production", according to the description of Absolute Minority, of 6 chapters of 1 hour each, which portrayed the twentieth century "as never seen before, in full color".

It was the first documentary series produced by RTVE with colored archive material and with the collaboration of the Spanish Film Library, in which you could see a very young Alfonso XIII, who has just been proclaimed king; Concha Piquer in the first sound film recording in Spanish; the coup d'état of Primo de Rivera of 1923 and the birth of the Second Republic; the Spanish Civil War; the birth of Franco's dictatorship or the death of Manolete.

Image of the documentary of the producer Minority Absolute for RTVE.

In fact, it was for this documentary that Minority Absolute signed with the ICAA an agreement "to define the collaboration and commitments between the ICAA, through the Spanish Film Library for the installation of a digital laboratory infrastructure and its use with film funds preserved in the ICAA". Along with this documentary, the agreement also signed the same for another television series and for a feature film for commercial theaters, which on the date of the signing of the agreement -May 19, 2020- received the name of Structures of the <>th century.

This agreement established that Absolute Minority would have access to the material of the Film Library and film funds owned by the ICAA, as well as the commitment to "exhibit, where appropriate, audiovisual productions in public screening rooms, with cultural purposes, worldwide, and provide a copy for exhibitions in other Autonomous Film Libraries and in those belonging to the International Federation of Film Archives".

As for the economic agreements, the agreement established that its signature did not imply "any commitment of any expense for the ICAA", but that the economic commitment for Absolute Minority, corresponding to the provision of the necessary equipment to Filmoteca Española to comply with the object of the agreement, as well as the hiring of the necessary personnel to carry out the tasks foreseen in it amounts to the maximum amount of 497,101 euros ".

However, last February the ICAA signed with the producer an addendum to the 2020 agreement for the installation of the digital laboratory infrastructure and its use with film funds preserved in the ICAA, which, according to sources familiar with said addendum, represents an "important saving" for the producer since the materials are borne by the ICAA. The agreement entered into force on May 19, 2020 and ends on May 19, 2023.

According to the BOE, this addendum meant "the obtaining by the ICAA of 1,000 minutes of digitized and digitally restored audiovisual funds for their preservation and dissemination; which has been valued at 911. 700 euros".

Likewise, the amount that the ICAA has ceased to receive as public prices for the reproduction and transfer of rights, according to this addendum, "amounts to 549,979 euros".

Both the ICAA and RTVE agree on grants for film and television projects constantly. However, "it is surprising", according to sources familiar with these agreements, "that contracts and agreements are signed with pro-independence producers who do not hesitate to and mock the Virgen del Rocío and anything Spanish."

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