Telemadrid justifies in a pre-agreement reached with the Episcopal Conference, RTVE and the public television stations of the Canary Islands and Catalonia the budget contract of 439,611.88 euros that it has just put out to tender to broadcast the institutional signal with which to follow León XIV’s every step through Madrid during his visit to Spain (June 6 to 12). This agreement, included in a contract published this Monday on the regional contracting portal, provokes suspicion among the left-wing opposition, which fears that the provision of adding to the general service a “personalized” signal of the papal tour in the capital will also serve to promptly promote the image of the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Normally, this possibility is used to generate graphics, labels, scenarios and own plans.
“The television stations of the autonomous communities that the Pope is going to visit (Catalonia, the Canary Islands and Madrid) will assume part of the coverage,” explains a Telemadrid spokesperson, who adds that Madrid television will operate “only” in the region, since “3 Cat and RTVC cover the part of the visit to their communities.” The contract justifies that the work has to be outsourced, without employing chain workers, because they “exceed operational capacity.” It also remembers that the Madrid entity provides a public service, and that the coverage of the visit “fits directly” into its obligations. An argument that the left-wing opposition only half accepts.
“Telemadrid should explain how all that money is going to be spent for coverage that certainly has public interest but we find it hard to believe how much,” they say in Más Madrid, the party that leads the opposition. “And since we are here, it is a good time for the Popular Party, Ayuso and Telemadrid to learn a little about the Christian values that this Pope embodies, which are the values of peace, respect for diversity and social justice,” they continue. “They should not spend so much, because at the rate of radicalization to the right that the PP is taking, the Pope’s coverage may seem like leftist propaganda.”
This is added by the PSOE: “We understand that it is an important visit to our Community, let’s hope that this amount is not for an Ayuso advertorial, as is customary on Telemadrid, but to publicize the visit.”
Nobody in the left-wing opposition disputes the importance of a visit like that of Leo XIV. Following the pontiff’s every step will lead Telemadrid to hire the services of several cameras every day, one of them transported by a drone, in addition to several specialized technicians. In the absence of knowing the final details of the visit, the successful bidder will also have to provide indoor and outdoor sets with which to personalize the signal, or mobile units to cover the Youth Vigil; the mass planned in Cibeles; the match at the Movistar Arena; or next to the Bernabéu. The multiple requirements included in the contract are conditional on knowing the official program of the visit. Its importance, no.
“The Pope’s visit constitutes, by its very nature, an exceptional event of undoubted public interest, with an institutional, religious, social and media dimension that, foreseeably, will generate a high demand for information and extensive citizen attention, both at the regional and national and international levels,” reads the documentation accompanying the contract, and signed by the company’s general director, José Antonio Sánchez. “The eventual holding of events in the Community of Madrid entails the need to have a technically solvent, continuous institutional audiovisual signal suitable for broadcast on television, radio and digital platforms,” it is added. And it is observed: “The nature of these requirements exceeds the ordinary response capacity with our own means under conditions of full guarantee.”
That is, Telemadrid assumes that it cannot afford the coverage with its own means and outsources it. Canarian television has done the same, in its case for a maximum of 646,295.10, according to the state contracting portal. With respect to RTVE, on the same website there is a contract of 137,000 euros for generating sets. It is foreseeable that this public investment in broadcasting the visit will increase soon, also with the incorporation of Catalan regional television.
Under the opposition’s magnifying glass
Telemadrid has been under the opposition’s scrutiny since Díaz Ayuso managed to govern without the company of Ciudadanos, starting in 2021. Just a month ago, the Constitutional Court censured the way in which the Ayuso Government changed the law to control the public company.
The Madrid Radio Television Law, the first one promoted by the Madrid president with her newly released absolute majority in June 2021, had only one article. Its approval was processed by express means: in a single reading and without the possibility for the opposition to present amendments, which is precisely what later spoiled the Constitutional Court.
The effects of this change in the structure and parliamentary control of the public entity have been profound. Thus, the Constitutional Prosecutor’s Office highlighted in March that, regarding the appointment of the members of the Telemadrid Board of Directors, the new law even goes so far as to contradict the regulations of the Madrid Assembly. However, the ruling ruled out ruling on the substance of the law, which “may be the subject, where appropriate, of a different and specific constitutionality process.” What it did do was speak out categorically about the unconstitutionality of the procedure—“unconstitutional and void”—with which it was approved.
To understand it, it is worth remembering that then, and for six years, the general director was José Pablo López and he had been elected with the agreement of PP, PSOE and Ciudadanos. Once the new law was approved, López was dismissed by Ayuso’s decision, and, in his place, a former president of Radio Televisión Española during Mariano Rajoy’s mandate was appointed. This is José Antonio Sánchez, a confessed voter of the PP. For his part, López now presides over RTVE.
