Virino Cascajosa Conception (Hospitalet de Llobregat, 1979), new interim president of the Spanish Radio and Television Corporation after the departure of Elena Sánchez, “It does not have the experience that can guarantee the good management of a state-owned commercial company of this size,” explains an internal source familiar with the ins and outs of the former Public Entity. “Her lack of experience as a manager should worry taxpayers more than her status as a socialist activist,” Add.
“It is also true that none of her predecessors had the necessary qualifications to manage RTVE, and there are the results but, unlike Cascajosa, Rosa María Mateo y Elena Sanchez They had been in the House for many years while the new president has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation since March 2021, president of the Equality Observatory since July 2021,” they recall. “No one doubts her good judgment, her integrity or of her brilliant career as a teacher, in audiovisual areas, as an author of publications or columnist in the media to write about those topics; but from there to managing a company of such size and complexity is a world away,” warns a person who has worked very closely with other RTVE presidencies.
It is true that Conchi, As she is called in the House, she has successfully assumed several administrative positions, including that of vice dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Communication and Documentation of the Carlos III University of Madrid, where she has been a full professor since 2012. However, suspended the competition to preside over the Corporation, a destination that has been reached by another path. “The teacher searched that public contest that RTVE called in 2018 to elect its board members,” our source reminds us. Indeed, He came in 86th place out of 95 candidates. It obtained only six points out of a maximum of 30. The RTVE expert committee said, regarding the management project presented by the person who will now (and for at least six months) manage the House, that his plan was deficient: ” “His project was unstructured, without an economic model or business structure,” reads the assessment report of the aforementioned committee.
But among the virtues that have led to Cascajosa Conception a succeeding Elena Sánchez is that she is “more socialist than Pedro Sánchez”, they tell us. “I am a member of the Socialist Party and, in this sense, I consider that this militancy is part of my social commitment and my progressive ideas. That shows a commitment to some ideas that I have,” the new ‘captain’ of RTVE admitted at the time. .
The least bad among the available options
In addition to its ideology, there is another reason that has encouraged it: “It is the least bad among the available options,” the Board of Directors explains to us. That’s right, given that the other advisor (Elena Sánchez does not count) appointed by the socialists is Ramon Colom, more unruly, less manageable, 71 years old and former director of TVE (between 1990 and 1996). But the Catalan journalist has also finished his mandate. In addition to being the only option once Colom was ruled out, Conchi is the appropriate executor to implement Moncloa’s will at RTVE, and specifically the personal whim of the President of the Government: “Pedro Sánchez wants David Broncano on TVE after the News to deactivate Pablo Motos”, We headlined the news on February 28; news with devastating consequences as has been seen.
Another of the virtues that Moncloa has seen in Cascajosa, and that explains the personal insistence of several members of the Government, including the first vice president, to carry out her appointment, is that the professor has supported the Council’s decisions without fissures. José Pablo López, the Content Director who has been sacrificed in this ‘Red wedding’ that has bled the previous leadership of RTVE, including the general secretary and the Council, Alfonso Morales. No matter how controversial their decisions were, no matter how expensive they were to taxpayers, no matter how blatant their favoritism towards certain production companies (including that of Contreras, that is, PRISA, which has billed them almost 38 million since Pedro Sánchez governed), Cascajosa always supported the man from Malaga on RTVE, as the sources consulted agree to confirm. José Pablo, who worked at La Sexta with Contreras and piloted Telemadrid when Ayuso governed with Ciudadanos, has had to leave, a victim of the collateral damage of this suicidal war that has claimed the previous interim president. But his plans, which is what matters, “are going to move forward,” they tell us. José Pablo López has released more failures than successes. Some of his audience failures have been resounding. La 1 has placed itself in third position and this Wednesday it barely exceeded 8% average audience.
José Pablo is the executor of the guidelines of Jose Miguel Contreras (media ideologue of the PSOE and the Executive). The founder of Globomedia and laSexta (the channel that Zapatero gave them and from which JoseMi made so much money), is the current Content Director of PRISA Media. Contreras is also a professor and doctor like Cascajosa. It was the businessman and producer who ‘sold’ Pedro Sánchez and Óscar López the idea of signing Broncano and putting him to compete (with public money) against Pablo Motos y The Anthill. Pedro Sánchez was enthusiastic about the idea and the director of the Presidential Cabinet gave the order to go ahead with the signing of the comedian from Jaén even if it cost a fortune and has no guarantee of working openly, since Broncano has a style that works on Movistar Plus + but that has not been endorsed in, so to speak, the ‘First Division’ of free-to-air commercial television. About signing three seasons 14 million each is nonsense but it is also important to close one with the option of another for that price. Contreras and José Pablo have not been too scared by the Corporation’s budgetary waste. To show that button: Only Julia Otero received 25,000 euros for each issue of TV days, produced by La Cooproductora de Contreras, from PRISA.
“The hiring of Broncano will take place in an Extraordinary Council”
“Conchi is perfect for executing the plans designed by the outgoing Content Director,” he adds. “The hiring of Broncano, among other measures and appointments, will be finalized in an Extraordinary Council scheduled for Wednesday, April 3”points out an RTVE source: “You just have to balance agendas and that could change the calendar day up, day down,” says the source consulted.
Cascajosa Conception He knows that his priority must be to comply with President Sánchez’s personal mandate. He confesses that he is a socialist militant (as he did with the party that elevated him) José Antonio Sánchez, last president of RTVE imposed by the PP, now on Ayuso’s Telemadrid), is aware that the spark that ended Elena Sánchez as president was rebelling against a direct order from Moncloa, and that the journalist was evicted from that chair She had good connections in Moncloa, among other reasons because she has been married for decades to the doctor and real estate developer. Pedro Pablo Mansilla Izquierdo, close to Felipe González, Zapatero and Pedro Sánchez. He was an advisor to Ernest Lluch, director of High Inspection of the Ministry of Health, and directed Penitentiary Institutions from 1990 to 1994, under the Government of Felipe González. Furthermore, with Zapatero at the helm, he was chosen by Luis Fernández (at the time, president of RTVE) to negotiate the sale of the Prado del Rey facilities and purchase of the new headquarters of the Corporation; although the economic crisis ended up destroying the project. Elena Sánchez’s husband was one of the businessmen who led Operation Chamartín in Madrid. They say that until not long ago he used to get together to play sports with Pedro Sánchez. We don’t know if that holds.
Alpha objective: hire Broncano and execute José Pablo López’s projects
Cascajosa Conception knows, as we said, that his alpha target is to hire Broncano and execute the projects that José Pablo has not been able to carry out, that is, those of Contreras and Moncloa. An intelligent and well-regarded professional in the sector, she is aware that her room for maneuver does not include rebelling against the true “political mentors” of her appointment. “It’s as if Alberto Núñez Feijóo dare to scold Isabel Diaz Ayuso because of her commission agent boyfriend, ignoring what happened to Pablo Casado when he did the same with his brother,” sarcastically exemplifies the person who explains to us how RTVE is left in the hands of Cascajosa. “Apart from the fact that the president herself believes in the convenience signing Broncano, it would not occur to her to contradict whoever put her there, which is who she is, even if it is formally a Board of Directors,” concludes our source.
LinkedinBeloud