The first of these – the one currently in use – is hidden away in a subordinate clause. It gives the Treasury the authority to nominate two members of the board, viz, the President, and one Treasury representative.

The second method was due to come into force following Rai’s privatisation. Privatisation was improbable even under the centre-right, and has been ruled out by the new government.

Nevertheless, the chairman of the parliamentary commission which oversees Rai is now claiming that the second method of appointing and removing members is currently in force, despite the failure of the privatisation initiative. Why? Because it would give that same parliamentary commission influence over the removal of Angelo Maria Petroni, the Treasury’s somewhat embattled representative on the Board.

According to the law, after privatisation, any representative of the Economics and Finance Ministry is bound to exercise any vote at an AGM called to dismiss a board member “in conformity with the deliberation” of the relevant parliamentary commission. Unnamed jurists in one report argue that this provision can be applied despite the failure of privatisation because Rai was granted its broadcasting concession in the same clause, the clause must be operative, or else Rai is broadcasting illegally.

This is, perhaps, the wrong argument to make. The second method of appointing and removing members was not “inactive”, it was merely over-written by transitory provisions (comma 9, Art. 20 of the law). A better argument to make is that these transitory provisions failed to completely overhaul the original provisions. Specifically, they made no provision for dismissal of a board member. Whether it can be legitimately inferred from this that the legislative intent behind the law was to preserve the original provisions on dismissal, but replace the provisions on appointment, is unclear.

What is clear is that Landolfi has a case which can’t be instantly dismissed. The practical significance may be the same: with a centre-left majority, the commission would still move to dismiss Petroni if it voted along straight party-lines. But that would drag the whole sorry process out longer. If Landolfi’s goal is to embarass Treasury Minister Tomaso Padoa-Schioppa, he’s going about it the right way.

The Rai press office has done its best to muddy the waters. It claims that the failure to convoke the assembly will result in fines according to “Art. 263 of the Civil Code” – which, as far as I can see, does not concern company law but rather the recognition of paternity.

In Italy, the long-awaited AGM to decide the fate of the Treasury’s representative on Rai’s board will now be held on the 8th August. Expect the newspapers to feature much irritated reaction in the lack of any serious August news.

Still on newspapers, the Council of Ministers agreed to changes in the law on press subsidies. The aim, according to Ricardo Levi, is

“affronta nello specifico la situazione per un riordino e ha l’ambizione di dare organizzazione ad una materia che in 60 anni ha avuto solo interventi occasionali: si vuole dare per la prima volta un quadro organizzativo”.

“To get to grips with the situation with the aim of reordering and giving some structure to a subject that, in sixty years, has only had occasional interventions: we now need, for the first time, an organisational framework”.

No-one seems to have wondered whether the press is a fit field for “intervention” , or whether the government should end this scheme altogether. As discussed before, the consequences fit no subsidy justification I’ve heard of.

“il ministro dell’Economia può revocare la fiducia ad un proprio rappresentante rifacendosi al principio più generale del “contrarius actus”. Ovvero, così come autonomamente il fiduciario è stato nominato, altrettanto autonomamente può essere revocato se non esiste una normativa specifica”.

The decision will be referred to a shareholders’ meeting in June.

Yesterday, Mediaset, along with other European partners, buys a majority stake in Dutch production company Endemol. Mediaset will, through Endemol, now supply programmes to its competitor, Rai, in prime-time. An overwhelming majority (93%) of respondents in a Repubblica insta-poll believe that Mediaset will use their control to screw Rai over.

Today, the centre-right members of the Rai board, upset about Petroni, threaten to vote no-confidence in the director-general Claudio Cappon. As far as I can see, this procedure is not found in the legislation or statuto sociale of Rai.

Conclusion? In both cases, the centre-left and centre-right are making up the law as they go along.

Like many of these rankings, the devil is in the details – more specifically, in who is polled. In the case of the FT’s three-star ranking of finance ministers, it seems to have been a quick series of phone calls around the office (”Each finance minister has also been ranked out of three by FT correspondents according to their political effectiveness”). The dangers of group-think are considerable. In sum, a pleasant game, but the FT’s considered judgement – “has upset business and resorted to budget tricks but will probably succeed in cutting the deficit” – doesn’t tell us much we didn’t know before.