Ana Mata will be the first woman at the helm of Mijas town hall

Ana Mata cut her political teeth in neighbouring Fuengirola where she was a councillor for 17 years as well as sitting on the Diputación Provincial before holding a top post at the Junta de Andalucía.

Born in Malaga in 1973, Ana Carmen Mata Rico has a Law degree from Malaga University as well as diplomas in Mediation and Conflict Management and Social Institutions as well as training in business management.

After working in the private sector - she was director of a driving school - she became a councillor in Fuengirola in 2002. There she had responsibilities in environment and planning as well as being deputy mayor and party spokesperson. Her name was in the running to substitute Esperanza Oña as mayor, although Ana Mula was elected and has been mayor ever since.

Mata has also been a member of the Diputación for several terms and held the portfolio for citizens' services and Equality and Social Innovation.

In 2019 she stood down from municipal politics when she was named secretary general for families, equality, domestic violence and diversity at the Junta de Andalucía when the PP came into power.

After four years in May she returned to local politics, appearing as number six on the PP ticket then headed by Ángel Nozal in Mijas, the municipality where Mata had made her home.

After the elections, the pact between the PSOE, Ciudadanos and Juan Carlos Maldonado left her in the opposition, but she returned to the Diputación, where she was her party's spokesperson. She will have to give up this role, however, when she becomes mayor due to the PP's "one politician, one public office" policy.

Ana Carmen Mata will become the first woman at the helm of Mijas town hall, since the first municipal elections in 1979.