Premier Matteo Renzi pledged
Tuesday that "professional-level" appointments will be made at
public broadcaster RAI, including a new president and CEO.
The appointments will be made on Wednesday as previously
promised, Renzi added during a visit to Japan where he met Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe.
"These will be professional level (nominations), with
competence and independence as it should be," said Renzi.
Last week, his cabinet lost an important vote in the Lower
House on reforms to RAI and although these were later approved
in the Senate,the loss was a political blow.
Meanwhile, in a post on his blog Tuesday, Beppe Grillo,
head of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) political
party, proposed TV executive Carlo Freccero as a director for
public broadcaster RAI.
Grillo added that the government has rushed the process of
naming new executives to RAI.
"There has not been the time required for start a serious
process," wrote Grillo, who often communicates through his blog
posts.
While Renzi on Tuesday would not name new leadership for
RAI he acknowledged he had high regard for one potential
candidate.
Antonio Campo Dall'Orto is "highly professional, among the
most interesting innovators of Italian television, a name with
the highest value that matches the criteria of quality,
authority and capacity...but we will see," Renzi said.
He added that his government had "no alternative" on the
renewal of RAI. Any delays would be bad for an organization with
three-billion euro budget, he said.
That explains why a new board of directors and senior
executives are being appointed under the existing system rather
than waiting for reforms to be completed, said Renzi.
His government's reforms are now working their way through
Italy's parliament.
Also on Tuesday, parliament's RAI oversight committee
elected seven new members to the public broadcaster's board of
directors.
They are Rita Borioni, Arturo Diaconale, Carlo Freccero,
Guelfo Guelfi, Giancarlo Mazzuca, Paolo Messa, and Franco Siddi.
Borioni and Guelfi got five and six votes respectively from
the majority wing of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) committee
members.
Siddi was voted in by five members from the PD and their
centrist allies.
Carlo Freccero was elected with six votes from M5S and the
small leftwing Left Ecology Freedom (SEL) party.
Diaconale got five votes from Silvio Berlusconi's
center-right Forza Italia (FI) party, and Messa and Mazzucca got
four votes from a caucus of New Center Right (NCD) and the small
centrist UDC party.
A dissenting leftwing minority within the ruling PD voted
for Ferruccio De Bortoli, who did not make it onto the board.
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