After Vučić and Orban, Pedro Vargas David also connects with Andrej Plenković: Croatian government confirms their meeting

Pedro Vargas Santos David, owner of Alpak Capital and the new director of all United Group media in Serbia, a member of the Adria News Network, met with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

As reported by the Croatian Nacional, the meeting took place on July 30th, and this was officially confirmed by the Croatian government, reports Nova RS.

"There was discussion about harmonizing work with the Croatian Media Act. The new owner's ambition is to achieve greater integration with the Euronews channel," the Croatian Government's response to Nacional reads.

The weekly writes that Plenković has a previously unknown serious media ally "who has extremely respectable resources if he decides to help him achieve his previously publicly unarticulated ambition - to become President of the European Commission."

"This is Portuguese businessman Pedro Vargas Santos David, the new owner of N1 television in Croatia as well, a man with 'thick connections' at the top of EU structures, but also a man considered close to former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Vargas took over N1 television through the venture capital investment fund Alpak Kapital, and recently, in unofficial conversations with close associates in Croatia, he began saying what Plenković is most likely secretly hoping for - that he thinks Plenković will become the new head of the European Commission," Nacional reported.

Pedro Vargas Santos David is the owner of the Portuguese investment group Alpak Capital, or rather their fund European Future Media Investmets. They have reached an agreement with the United Group on the sale of the United Group's media in Serbia, but also in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Montenegro.

Thus, Pedro David bought the television stations Nova and N1, the portal and newspaper Nova, the weekly Radar, the newspaper Danas, the television station N1 in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia... According to the information published so far, the contract is worth around 30 million euros.

In mid-August, the Commercial Court of Montenegro accepted the request of the founders and minority owners of Television Vijesti and temporarily blocked changes in the company's ownership and management structure, assessing that there are sufficient grounds to preserve the current situation until the dispute over the sale of the majority stake in it is resolved.

The Commercial Court also temporarily blocked the change of ownership in the Podgorica-based company Daily Press, publisher of the newspaper and portal Vijesti, at the end of August, preventing the controversial Portuguese investment fund from taking control of the most influential media outlet in Montenegro until the dispute over the right of first refusal is resolved.

The competent commissions in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina gave their consent. However, despite this, Pedro David did not register as the owner.

In the Business Registers Agency, he is designated as the legal representative, or director, of all media outlets operating within ANN, and the owner is the company United Fiber, a subsidiary of the United Group. At the same time, all previous media directors were replaced, Nova reports.

In addition to being linked to Orban, his father Mario has an interesting connection to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. At a Euronews enlargement summit, Vučić was interviewed on stage. During the interview, Vučić mentioned his "friend" Mario David.

The elder David is a long-time advocate for Serbia in the EU and has known Vučić for years through the European People's Party, the Serbian president's spokesman said. Pedro Vargas David, who was sitting in the front row, laughed along with the audience.