The public media in Galicia are currently experiencing a situation very similar to that experienced by Gary Lineker in the United Kingdomand involving the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijoo. A Galician television presenter, which depends on the regional government, criticized Núñez Feijoó on social networks and was removed from her position and forcibly sent to public radio.
Is about Mayte Cabezas. Like the former player, he criticized on social networks, and his case does not seem to have a happy ending like that of the Mexico ’86 striker. The journalist’s father was a civil guard murdered by the Grapo (First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups) in 1989.. On March 7, Cabezas was interviewed by Cadena Ser de Vitoria, on the eve of a new anniversary of the murder of her father, which occurred when she was 18 years old and had just joined Television de Galicia.
In that interview, he recalled that in 2019, in a tribute to the Civil Guard, he was approached by the president of the Galician government: “He made a very intimate and vehement personal commitment that there would immediately be a law to support victims of terrorism.. And never again. There is no law nor is it expected”. The president was Núñez Feijoó.
Four days after that interview, Cabezas read statements by the current leader of the Popular Party, on the day that marked the 19th anniversary of the Atocha attacks. “A worthwhile policy involves remembering people who have been killed by ETA, Islamic jihadism or any other terrorist cause,” said the conservative politician.
So, Cabezas came out to comment on his social networks. “With an absolute majority, he systematically turned his back on the victims”he wrote on Facebook citing the interview. He would later state: “I felt obliged to explain that he was a scoundrel”. Two days later, she went to work at the channel and was notified that she had been transferred to the radio, without explanation.
“My direct managers on TV told me that it was nothing personal or professional, that they were orders from above. ‘Have I done something wrong?’ I asked them, and they told me no, on the contrary,” he told eldiario.es. “So I went to see the human resources director. And he says that he just writes down the names that he is given from above and sends the letters,” he continued. He wanted to contact a content director, who did not answer him.
The workers of the Galician public media are in conflict: they already stopped on March 6 and plan to do it again on March 24 and 25. The case of Mayte Cabezas led to a statement from the collective denouncing an attack on freedom of expression. “This transfer is added to other previous ones of significant colleagues in their opposition to the manipulation of information in the Galician public media,” they said from the union.
Núñez Feijoó made his career in the Galician PP in the shadow of Manuel Fraga Iribarne, the historic leader of the post-Franco right. He came to the regional government in 2009 and revalidated his position by a large majority in successive elections. In 2022 he made the leap to leadership of the PP after the internal crisis in Februarywhen the then right-wing leader, Pablo Casado, denounced the president of Madrid, the also popular Isabel Díaz Ayuso, for corruption and was ejected from office.
Núñez Feijoó will be the candidate for the presidency of the Spanish government for the PP. He prides himself on not having an explosion of far-right votes from VOX in Galicia, contrary to what happens in other parts of Spain. It’s true: the extreme right is atomized in Galicia, one of the most conservative regions of the country. His detractors say that it is because the Galician PP contains in its bosom these factions.
Another criticism of the right-wing leader is that he cannot explain his 1995 photo on vacation with Marcial Dorado, a notorious drug trafficker. The PSOE refloated that image in recent days.