Oughourlian challenges Moncloa and begins to fire his supporters in an unprecedented fight

Prisa's president, Joseph Oughourlian , has already shown on other occasions that he does not deal well with impositions, but last Wednesday he raised the pulse with the Government to an unprecedented level by causing the resignation of the president of Prisa Media, Carlos Núñez , and opening the door to more dismissals of executives close to Pedro Sánchez who wanted to impose free-to-air television, and among whom, according to several sources, is the group's Content Director, José Miguel Contreras .

The conflict has been going on for a long time. The investor played a key role in the government's takeover of Indra and believes that the government is not fulfilling its part, especially due to the delays in the sale of Minsait. The clash was staged in the purchase of Hispasat, when the advisor of Amber, Oughourlian's investment fund, opposed the operation.

"We have a good relationship. He has his interests and he didn't see the purchase. I'm betting twice as much as he is and I did see it," said the president of Indra, Ángel Escribano , yesterday at a press conference in which he played down the clash after the president of Prisa had supported the general management of the company and its ambitions in defence in an interview with Expansión .

Now, the pulse in Prisa has reached another level, especially if one takes into account that this is the largest media support that the Government has, which has become accustomed to attacking the media that do not support its management.

In Moncloa's media strategy, the possibility of having a new open channel with an ideological line close to the PSOE occupied a central place and Prisa was the perfect candidate for it. The operation had been designed in such a way that the main financial injection would come from the shareholders close to Moncloa and the latter would only have to provide resources.

However, the challenge launched in an interview with Carlos Núñez in El País , in which this movement was treated as "a natural step" for the group, was cut short in just ten days in a tense congress in which the television plan was aborted in a few hours and unleashed internal reprisals, the scope of which is still unknown. Now it seems much more complicated for this project to be born.

"Clearly, if this project does not go ahead, the people who were pushing hard for this project within the company, we will relocate them and they will have to settle for looking for another project, or I think they have no place within the company," said the Armenian investor in the aforementioned interview in Expansión , in a clear warning to sailors that the executive would not hesitate to direct the company in the direction he considers necessary.

To achieve this, the first step is to refinance the debt and then put more focus on the group's Latin American media businesses.