Two weeks ago Jesús Álvarez, one of the most valued journalists on RTVE, surprised by announcing live on the news that he was retiring. Álvarez was added to the list of RTVE faces who have either disappeared, according to the public entity, to "look for new projects", or have said goodbye or have been said goodbye to RTVE, as is the case of Ana Blanco or by Raquel Martinez.
At that time, Jesús Álvarez simply announced his retirement after turning 65. However, now in two interviews, one in El Debate and the other in Pronto magazine, he has reflected without hindrance the sad situation that the public channel is going through, as well as the mistakes that the leaders of public television are making.
"On television, a lot of left hand is missing," the journalist stated in El Debate. I had two major work projects to do around the house and I asked to talk before I left. No one has received me and I have knocked on several doors to talk to people for five minutes, "he says.
Jesús Álvarez also assures that it is not a "political question", it is "a question of education": "You can tell me 'Jesus, hey, at this moment this does not count among our projects, or right now we cannot face it'. Whatever. But receive me. At least listen to me. I've been in the house for many more years than you."
Likewise, in the magazine Pronto the presenter is even more harsh and confirming the same thing, that they neither received him nor answered him, he denounced that he did not retire, "TVE retired me." "I was shocked when they forced me to retire. I feel disappointed. They have not taken into account everything I have given to that house," he told the magazine.
The son of the mythical presenter Jesús Álvarez, who died in 1970, who together with Laura Valenzuela and Joaquín Prat was one of the first faces of public television, also criticized the attitude that RTVE executives are applying to the most popular and most valued faces of the chain. Thus, he assures that he ignores, for example, the reasons for the departure of Raquel Martínez, presenter of Canal 24 Horas, but he does not hesitate to point out that "perhaps the leaders of that house should stop looking at their navels" and "should think what they are doing wrong or why people make certain decisions.
"I don't quite understand why instead of allocating all the money that is allocated to external productions, there are no projects from the house or people from the house to do them. We had excellent programs: Estudio 1, programs like Un, two, three, big news, reports, series... And that was done at home. Now I don't know why the production companies do it," he points out in his interview in El Debate as one of the main problems RTVE is experiencing with a constant loss of audience and programs that cost a lot of money and do not give the expected results.
Álvarez has not had any qualms about explaining the excuses they gave him to retire him either. He acknowledges that the Public Corporation Agreement "obliges you to leave when you turn 65 and have contributed to Social Security for more than 35 years", but insists that "now that we are fully active, you can continue for a couple of years or further".
In addition, he explains that he sent "a message to Elena Sánchez, president of RTVE, who is a lifelong friend of mine and I am still waiting for an answer."
"Why don't they let me continue if they are not going to bring in new people to cover these positions? It is the question that I leave in the air and that is affecting me, not only me, but many other colleagues who have left before than I for forced retirement", he concludes.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
