Rai, difficult to reach an agreement on appointments before the summer holidays. Who is in pole position –

Marco Zonetti

August 5, 2024

While Rai is enjoying the excellent ratings of the Olympics, behind the scenes of the company a political-institutional “race” is taking place linked to the fate of public television, at least for the next three years. We are obviously talking about the game of risk between Fratelli d’Italia, Lega and Forza Italia for the appointments of the new Rai Board of Directors. It is unlikely that the government summit between Giorgia Meloni, Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani, scheduled for today before the August “break ranks”, will be able to resolve the various thorny issues that have not been resolved so far. To recap: the current Board of Directors appointed in July 2021 in the Draghi era has effectively expired and, as if that were not enough, President Marinella Soldi unexpectedly resigned days ago. To proceed with the renewal of the Board of Directors before the summer break, the Chamber and Senate should elect – by the aforementioned date of August 10 – the four members appointed by parliament; in parallel, the Government should indicate the CEO and the President, whose nomination should however be endorsed by two thirds of the Supervisory Commission. The names in pole position are Simona Agnes from Forza Italia for the presidency and that of Melonian Giampaolo Rossi as CEO.

As for the other directors (in addition to Davide Di Pietro already appointed by Rai employees), as far as the four names elected by the Chambers are concerned, the renewal of Alessandro Di Majo from the M5S quota is considered, Fratelli d’Italia has Valeria Falcone in mind, the League would focus on Alessandro Casarin, current director of Tgr and the PD on Antonio Di Bella or Roberto Natale, currently Rai director for Sustainability and former spokesperson for Laura Boldrini. According to some rumors, the Democrats could even focus on the latter. It is clear that such a deployment of procedures in just a few days already encounters the obstacle of excessively short timeframes. But that is not the only impediment. First of all, as already anticipated by Tempo, the division of the two top positions, with the Rai presidency to FI and the CEO seat to FdI, would leave the League no other choice than to aim for the figure of the general director. Salvini would have thought – in addition to Roberto Sergio, current CEO of Rai – of Marco Cunsolo, currently director of TV Production, or Maurizio Fattaccio, current president of Rai Pubblicità. The mooted hypothesis of eliminating the position of DG, however, clashes with the ambitions of the Carroccio, which at that point could demand in exchange important directions such as that of Day Time or of Insights, respectively held by the Melonians Angelo Mellone and Paolo Corsini, thus confusing further pieces of the Rai mosaic.

Another obstacle is the presidency, since the majority cannot count on the 28 votes out of 41 needed in the Supervisory Board to approve Agnes’ nomination. Matteo Renzi’s rapprochement with the PD has in fact changed the balance in the Commission and the ended external support from the M5S does not give hope for secret votes in favor of the Government. Moreover, it even seems that at the time of the vote, the Democrats – who have denied wanting to propose the usual Di Bella as Rai president – will leave the Chamber together with the Five Star Movement. A series of obstacles, therefore, that makes an accelerated process for the renewal of the Rai top management by August 10 rather difficult and, barring miracles, it is quite plausible that everything will be postponed until autumn. Maybe even October, when the TAR ruling is expected on the appeal presented by three candidates for the Board of Directors supported by former president Zaccaria, who have questioned the legitimacy of the “Renzi reform” that regulates nominations. Will today’s government summit be a simple summer farewell or, against all odds, will it bring surprise changes to the fate of Rai? We’ll see.