The Italian parliament on Thursday
elected four new directors to the state broadcaster Rai, two
from a government slate and two from an opposition list,
although the opposition was split on the vote.
The Lower House first elected a candidate close to Premier
Giorgia Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and a
TV journalist close to the leftwing opposition Green-Left
Alliance (AVS).
The FdI candidate was Federica Frangi and the Rai journalist
close to AVS was Roberto Natale.
The centre left was split on the vote with the centre-left
Democratic Party (PD) and the centrist Azione and Italia Viva
parties boycotting the vote for Natale, who was voted in solely
by the leftist populist 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the AVS.
AVS leader Angelo Bonelli said this showed that the "broad field
does not exist," referring to the sometime and erstwhile
difficult alliance of leftwing and centrist parties.
Rai parliamentary oversight panel chair Barbara Floridia
commended the M5S and AVS for "preventing there being a board of
directors deprived of the guard of the opposition forces and the
majority naming all the directors, this ensuring a fundamental
balance for the pluralism of information and the respect of the
various sensibilities in the country."
The Senate later Thursday elected a candidate close to the
ruling rightwing League party and a candidate close to the M5S
to the Rai board.
The new League-linked director is Antonio Marano while the
M5S-linked director is Alessandro di Majo. The centre-left
opposition was again split on the vote, as it had been in the
House earlier.
Meloni has said she is "rebalancing" Rai after past leftwing
bias amid claims she has stacked the public broadcaster with
like-minded appointees and driven out left-leaning journalists.
Rai staff have struck against her allegedly turning Rai into a
government mouthpiece.
Meloni has rejected the "Meloni TV" claims saying the left is
merely irked that Rai is no longer "PD TV", referring to the
main centre-left opposition party, the Democratic Party.
photo: Frangi and Natale
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