Spanish public TV and its obsession with Ayuso's penthouse

Ayuso's penthouse dominates public TV while the public debate looks elsewhere

Switching on TVE1 at any time of day meant seeing the same shot: the penthouse of Madrid's regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, turned into the lead story. The scene, repeated for days, has ended up fuelling a wave of hostility towards the public broadcaster: some viewers are calling on others to delete the channel from their TVs and spread the boycott.

It is not a phenomenon exclusive to TVE1. The criticism extends to other channels: a look at recent schedules suggests that a La Sens programme devoted around 90% of its airtime to the same story over six or seven consecutive Saturdays. For part of the audience, this is proof of an obsession that diverts attention from other open fronts, from the judicial backlog engulfing half the government to a territorial situation some describe as critical.

Two readings of the same scandal

While some see the penthouse as a minor story blown out of proportion, others argue it is a real story that deserves investigation. "It smells like a rat and like she's been caught", even a critic of the media coverage admits, though he considers it irrelevant compared with problems he deems more serious. Legal caution requires underlining: these are reports and presumptions not yet confirmed by the courts.

The debate has gone further. Some are directly calling for RTVE to be shut down and its management purged. Others point out that the boycott has been under way for a while: "I did it eons ago", says one viewer. The truth is the controversy reflects growing discontent with the TV agenda in a country where trust in public media keeps falling, with no one finding a way to reverse it.