Former mayor of Mijas returns to the frontline of local politics with new party
Ángel Nozal, formerly of the PP, has founded '100x100 Mijas' with an eye on the next municipal elections
Ángel Nozal, who was mayor of Mijas between 2011 and 2015, has returned to the local political scene with a brand new party.
Nozal left the Partido Popular (PP) in November after 43 years; he was one of the founders of the PP's predecessor, the AP, in the town. He blamed discrepancies with current PP mayor Ana Mata, who governs what is the province's third most populated municipality thanks to agreements with hard-right Vox and Por Mi Pueblo, a party represented by former mayor, Juan Carlos Maldondo.
Nozal has announced that the headquarters of his new party, 100x100 Mijas, will be open in Las Lagunas from 1 March. In a message he said that his aim was “to hold meetings to exchange ideas with the people and groups who are joining the initiative”.
In a message, the ex-mayor of Mijas said that the new party would put together a programme that is "very local, very social and very geared towards the local people, far from orders imposed 'from above'; higher up there will only be Mijas, nothing and no one else". The message was accompanied by the announcement that in several weeks the new party will have larger premises.
He says he will have a "very local, very social and very geared towards the local people", far from orders "imposed from above"
When he left the PP last November, Nozal gave an interview to SUR in which he maintained that the election of Ana Mata as mayor was "an artificial implant that has not taken off", while defending that the mayor should have been Lourdes Burgos and predicting that if the PP did not react, the PSOE could win the next municipal elections "without a hitch".
He was asked then if he left the door open to launching a new party and he said, "If the PP stays where it is and I detect that the PSOE is going to get an absolute majority, and at this moment I detect it, at a given moment early next year I will make a decision, which could be like Espartero and go and work in my field and wait, or like Alcibiades, that is, talk to the Spartans and work against the Persians."
Given his decision, the conclusion is that Ángel Nozal has decided to be Alcibiades. The question now is what impact the emergence of a new party will have on the centre-right in Mijas, where apart from the PP and Vox, Ciudadanos is still represented.
The next municipal elections will be between the end of May and mid-June next year.
PP spokesperson Félix Romero said that Nozal’s move would not affect the party’s plans
