The withdrawal of Kiko Veneno, Jota de Los Planetas or Álvaro Urquijo shakes the elections of the SGAE | Culture
They wanted to sing a hymn to regeneration. Finally, however, they have sung a collective chorus of resignation. Some of the most famous candidates for the SGAE elections, from Jota de Los Planetas to Kiko Veneno, from Noni de Lori Meyers to Jorge Ilegales, announced today in a joint statement that they will not participate in the October 26 elections " the continued breach of its obligations by the SGAE and the successive irregularities committed by the president, José Miguel Fernández Sastrón. " The musicians add that they do not recognize "the validity of the call" nor will they accept "their results". The massive farewell shake the entity just the day before the election campaign starts. From the SGAE assure this newspaper that they do not know, for now, any withdrawal or a request in that regard.
"We invite all candidates to join this initiative and withdraw their candidacies, and the partners to not vote for anyone and not legitimize an election that should not be held," adds the document, which is also signed by artists such as Álvaro Urquijo, Amaro Ferreiro , Bernardo Fuster, Consuelo Díez, Patacho Recio or Rosa León. These musicians had already announced days ago that they would take a step back if the SGAE did not implement electronic voting in the elections, something that has not happened in the end. And not only. At the end of the text, they leave another notice: "If serious irregularities have not been corrected or are being resolved by the end of the year, we recommend all SGAE members to collect the SGAE repertoire collectively". Several multinationals already launched in June the necessary steps to take the entity's international catalog from January.
Sastron has always argued that electronic voting is not an obligation of the statutes, that it is not usually available in elections and that, since the elections were advanced to October 26, his government is only in office: that is, it considers that has the power or responsibility to approve such a relevant change. Faced with this, these musicians and other partners attack the management of the president and denounce three urgent needs for the SGAE: "Application of a system of distribution of rights according to and proportional to the use and the repercussion of the works; Full transparency and professionalization in management; and a fair representation of the partners in the control and government bodies ".
Given the contrasts and the impasseSastrón chose to advance the elections, trusting that the new governing bodies that come out of them will unblock the difficulties. Among other candidates, musicians such as Josemi Carmona, Hevia, Arcángel or Eduardo participate in the elections Teddy Bautista, president of the Board of Directors of the SGAE until 2011, and currently waiting to know the date of the trial against him and other 10 people for alleged misappropriation.
The Ministry of Culture has also increased in recent months the pressure on a SGAE immobilized by internal conflicts. On September 28 sent "a warning to the entity with a period of three months to comply with the law", where he asked precisely the electronic vote, the urgent reform of its statutes and solutions to its distribution system that made the wheel difficult , an alleged fraud that investigates the justice by which partners of the entity and employees of televisions were pocketed millions thanks to the music broadcast at dawn, with hardly any audience. The SGAE approved last week to appeal the decision of the ministry.
