Rai, the government thinks about the anti-Fuortes rule: chaos on programs extended to the end of June

ROME. They can’t program anything. Everything is blocked in Rai. And so the genre directors are forced to extend talk shows and broadcasts until June 30, waiting to understand what will happen at the top, when the sovereign takeover of the public television building by Giorgia Meloni will finally take place. “In October they will broadcast the monoscope”, ironize the managers slipping into bitterness. It now seems certain that the next schedules will be illustrated in July, therefore later than the date – June 28 – scheduled for presentation to advertisers. At the moment nothing can be planned for the future. As has been said several times, the managing director Carlo Fuortes, with the approval of the financial statements, should have given way to the new CEO. It hasn’t happened yet. Having skipped the hypothesis of the superintendency of the Scala in Milan, the manager will not unbolt until he has certain of his destination. He wants the San Carlo of Naples. Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano is working on it, but a law is needed that takes time to force the current superintendent Stéphane Lissner, not very welcome by the former director of Tg2, to leave.

Or it could be done differently. The shareholders’ meeting is scheduled for Thursday. Article 29, paragraph 2 of the Articles of Association reads: «The CEO shall remain in office for three years from the act of appointment without prejudice to the faculty of revocation by the Board of directors, having heard the opinion of the assembly». The will of the shareholder, i.e. the Mef, and of the majority of the seven directors of the board is needed. So there is a technical tool to push Fuortes out. And they are thinking about the government, as FdI sources confirm. A possibility that had not yet been taken into consideration in order not to jeopardize the work on the schedules, but which will be evaluated in the event of further resistance from the CEO.

Great concern in this regard is expressed by Giancarlo Leone, who for thirty years held top positions in Viale Mazzini. Today he is the president of the audiovisual producers’ association and is very worried by the swamp in which Rai has ended up. A stalemate that complicates any investment idea. Leone calls for urgent intervention by the shareholder, the Ministry of the Economy, which in fact has in its pocket the possibility of a regulation to force Fuortes’ exit: «Everything is incredibly still – Leone is indignant -: external production projects and internal, fiction, documentaries, animation, entertainment. All. It takes months of preparation just to sign co-production agreements and to start the projects. The risk of not going on air in October is very high. We don’t care if and who will lead the company in the future, we ask that the situation be resolved immediately without waiting for solutions at the top that obviously don’t exist. When there is an administration that governs Rai, it cannot be stopped. But that’s how it is.” It is incredible but true that the fate of public television hangs on Fuortes’ next occupation. But there’s more. The majority parties argue. The right is split, and Fuortes’ attitude – standing there in his place – can come in handy, because many political agreements are still missing. For example on Tg1. The sovereign feud against the director of AdnKronos Gian Marco Chiocci has already been reported in this newspaper. Meloni wants him on Rai1, but Palazzo Chigi has not yet imposed his will on the company’s internal branch. Other poisons between friends: within FdI there is talk of Matteo Salvini’s excessive interest in Monica Setta. You already have too many plans, Meloni’s men say. Melonian Rai was born in chaos.