Rai CEO Carlo Fuortes resigns: “There are no conditions to continue”

Carlo Fuortes he resigned as CEO of Rai. He himself announced it to the shareholder of state television, namely the Ministry of Economy and Finance. “The conditions to continue are lacking,” said Fuortes, who had resisted leaving office in recent months. And who decided to step back after the government unblocked the impasse to try to relocate him to the management of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples (although the current superintendent, the Frenchman Stéphane Lissner, announced to this newspaper that he wanted to oppose the expelled).

“I have been working in the public administration for decades and I have always acted in the interests of the institutions I have led, favoring the general benefit of the community over partisan conveniences. In the first year of work of the new Board of Directors with the Draghi government, the Board of Directors achieved great results for the Company”, writes Fuortes to the MEF. “To name just a few: new programs and schedules which have led, among other things, to a evident relaunch of Rai2, the organizational transformation for Generi, a strategic real estate plan that has been expected for decades, a significant strengthening of RaiPlay and the digital offer”.

“From the beginning of 2023 on the position I hold and on my person – continues the resigning Rai CEO – a political clash has opened up which contributes to weakening Rai and the Public Service. At the same time I noticed within the Board of Directors of Rai the lack of the constructive attitude that had characterized him, indispensable for the management of the first Italian cultural company. This actually threatens to paralyze it, making it unable to meet the obligations and deadlines of company programming with the risk of making it impossible to face the great challenges of Rai’s future. In the coming weeks, the Board of Directors must approve the programs for the new schedules and it is a fact that the conditions no longer exist to continue the editorial renewal project that we undertook in 2021. In order to get the approval of the new production plans by the Board of Directors, I cannot accept the compromise of sharing changes – although obviously legitimate – of the editorial line and a programming that I do not consider in Rai’s interest. I have always considered the freedom of choice and of the work of a director to be an essential element of the ethics of a public company”, the document continues.

“My professional future – which has been much discussed in the newspapers these days, not always by the way – is of no importance in the face of these reasons and cannot be the subject of negotiation. I therefore acknowledge that the conditions no longer exist to continue my work as CEO. In the interest of the Company, I have communicated my resignation to the Minister of Economy and Finance”, concludes the outgoing CEO.