Darío Villanueva, elected director of the Royal Spanish Academy – HOME

Dario Villanueva, in the SAR. / Samuel Sanchez

Dario Villanueva ( Vilalba, Lugo, 1950) has become the thirty director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) in its three centuries of history. It came without surprises, with 28 votes in favor of the 35 cast (support 80%), to replace José Manuel Blecua, the philologist who four years ago won an election in which fought both.

Professor of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the University of Santiago, of which he was president between 1994 and 2002 and which continues to class, Villanueva joined the Academy in 2008 with a speech devoted to Quijote. The following year, while recovering from a car accident in the hospital, received the news that he had been elected secretary. The institution has a peculiar electoral system. In theory, each school can be elected to any office and can not reject the designation

In practice, the currents for each other sometimes occur with months in advance, as it was on this occasion. Although Blecua not publicly revealed until yesterday its desire not to repeat the charge-the directors may elect two reelecciones- in the house was a secret that Villanueva had a large support group that grew was waning as the Blecua.

This week, the voices in favor of renewal were visible in a big way, when the writer and academic Arturo Pérez-Reverte defended the change in direction. It will not, however, a disruptive twist: Villanueva has been involved in the management of all relevant events SAR the past four years, as the celebration of the tercentenary, and he points out that no “from scratch” to deploy . the strategic plan that wants to stabilize the financial situation of the house

A Villanueva touch you deal with difficult times economically-the government has cut since 2008 the subsidy to the house by 59% – and professionally challenging times. “Things are as they are, and occur when they occur. I feel very honored by this award from my peers. The RAE has gone through extremely difficult times politically and economically. And if the ancestors managed to overcome it, we too, “said the new director told El Pais.

In the academic field, Villanueva will have to push the preparatory work for the twenty-fourth edition of Dictionary Spanish language , which will mean a revolution in the traditional model, as will be born from the digital environment and then migrate to printed versions, reversing the flow that has marked the gestation of the work in the last three centuries. “Inevitably a recasting of Dictionary , which is the main trunk of the Academy since its inception,” said director-elect, who takes office next January 8.

In the budget, you must balance the books-the mismatch between expenditure and revenue amounted to 2.5 million euros. Villanueva, who among his plans is to create a management company services the institution provides, relies on increasing revenues generated by the Academy, without thereby breaking the traditional free access to Dictionary Internet. The RAE is negotiating with an entity the exclusive sponsorship of the digital version of Dictionary which receives between 40 and 45 million visits per month.

As for expenses, Academy has decided to lower the wages of its workforce and academic diets by 10% in addition to opening a voluntary redundancy plan. This rule, however, the application of a Record of Employment Regulation (ERE) has planned for its 85 employees. Villanueva uses a joke to explain their opposition to this measure: “It’s like the student of Engineering who will say that the trains have many accidents in the caboose and decides that the solution to avoid this is easy: the wagon is deleted tail. ” “It would be a paradox want to raise revenue with highly specialized services and to waive highly qualified and trained for what the Academy needs human resources,” he says.