SGAE's new President Antonio Onetti pledges to 'restore confidence' in the Spanish rights society

By Emmanuel Legrand

SGAE's Antonio Onetti

SGAE has had more Presidents in the last decade than Italy had Prime Ministers during the same period of time following the election of playwright and screenwriter for film and television, Antonio Onetti, to lead the Spanish Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers.

  Onetti, who is from the Audiovisual chapter of SGAE, was elected during an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors by 21 votes in favour, 6 votes against and 8 abstentions. Onetti becomes the 44th President of SGAE and the seventh in the past ten years. He is elected until October, when the society will hold its normal annual meeting.

  Onetti replaces Fermín Cabal, who has held the position of president on an interim basis since April 15, as stipulated in the society's bylaws, after previous President Pilar Jurado, who stayed in the job for 15 months, was ousted by the Board.

Rebuild confidence

  Onetti has a full agenda at hand: rebuild confidence in the society, modernise the organisation in order to function in a fair and transparent way, implement new statutes that are in line with the European legislation and the bylaws of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), which expelled the society from the organisation in May 2019, and bring the society back into the community of authors' societies.

  He was an opponent to the "rueda", a scam by which music publishers and TV channel executives, with SGAE insiders' support, took advantage of SGAE's night-time rates applied to broadcasters to play exclusively music that they controlled. The "rueda" scheme is still investigated by Spanish police.

  Onetti said in a statement that his main objective as president is "to restore confidence in the proper functioning of [SGAE's] governing bodies, with absolute professionalism in management, transparency and efficiency, to hold elections to both the Board of Directors and the new supervisory body as soon as possible, and overcome the economic consequences caused by the pandemic with full support to authors [composers and publishers] and at the lowest possible cost to the society.”

Comply with requirements

  "To achieve this," he added, "it is essential to strengthen collaboration with the cultural institutions to which SGAE reports, namely the Ministry of Culture, the supervisory body of our society, and CISAC. Cooperation, dialogue and scrupulous compliance with all their requirements must be the cornerstones of our immediate roadmap to normalise the life of the society."

  Onetti said the first thing he did on the day he was elected was to reach out to the Spanish Ministry of Culture and to Gadi Oron, the Director General of CISAC. In an interview with El Pais, Onetti talked further about his plans. He expects the Ministry of culture to approve SGAE's new statutes and he plans to continue to implement the changes asked by CISAC.

  He insisted that he wanted to preside the organisation, not run it, and let the executives in charge manage the society with oversight from the board. "It is very important that the presidency ceases to be executive and becomes representative," he said. "It is a position derived from the Intellectual Property Law and European regulations. This is something that pleases me, not because it takes away my responsibility, but because the management must be professional."

A crushing machine

  He added: "Until now, the president, an author, had executive capacity but was not prepared for it, because it is not his or her field of work. If I were to run Coca-Cola, I would sink it. Technicians must be allowed to work."

  Onetti said in the Pais interview that he will consider running again after October, based on how the changes would unfold and if he is not victim of SGAE's "crushing machine."