Government pacts new management board at RTVE, the public broadcaster

Pedro Sánchez's minority PSOE government secured its first parliamentary success this week when it reached agreement with enough other political parties for a new board of directors at RTVE. A softer stance on Catalonia helped get Catalan nationalist support.

RTVE, the national public broadcaster, has a board approved by parliament and there had been disagreement over how it should be made up. In the end the new board will also have members chosen by the Podemos party and the PNV Basque nationalists but not by the conservative PP party nor centrist Ciudadanos.

The new board is in a position to influence editorial policy and the PP expressed anger at being left out. Parliamentary spokesperson, Rafael Hernández, said, "We are not prepared to let Pedro Sánchez assault public television so they don't broadcast the payments to his [political] partners and so he controls the news." The new head of RTVE is Tomás Fernando Flores, current boss of its Radio 3, a music-based station.