There is a long indestructible thread that has united the majority and opposition political forces for more than thirty years in the debate that revolves around the role of Rai: whoever governs from time to time tries to get their hands on the top company and those who are in the minority pretend to tear their clothes in the hope of enjoying the same mechanism with reversed parts.
A harmony that, so to speak, "helps": a little control is guaranteed and at the same time the doors are left open to that middle ground (the related industries) which, step by step, has taken on such forms and dimensions as to make any serious intervention on the public service extremely problematic.
And that this is the real terrain of the clash and of the "conquest" is demonstrated by a fact known to all the protagonists: in the Second Republic no party has ever won the elections having control of Rai. Governing the public company does not guarantee consensus, but it ensures the control of rivers of money destined for production and contracts. This is the real goal of politics beyond the fake controversies, the fake roundabouts, the lofty and solemn resolutions.
It is enough to remember that the last real debate on the role of the public service took place before the approval of the Mammi' law, when the Christian Democrat left, not sharing the guidelines of the reform, left the Government. Politically a geological era ago. Then nothing more. In the meantime, the world of radio and television communication has profoundly changed and the arrival of the web and digital technology have changed the perception and use of the message. A radical change which is now accompanied by an equally drastic reform which hands control over the top management of Rai directly to the chief executive.
All inserted in a context that sees the expiry of the agreement which until now has assigned Rai the task of ensuring the public service. What better occasion to start a profound reflection on what "public service" means today, to which criteria it must correspond, which functions to ensure. Only at the end of an in-depth discussion will it be possible to proceed with the renewal of the agreement because, at least in theory, it cannot be excluded that in the new publishing world "all the players" are somehow doing a "public service", and in this case the the proceeds of a license fee, now "armored" against any hypothesis of evasion, should be spread among all subjects and not concentrated on a single company.
