The National Executive Committee of VOX has nominated Manuel Mestre as candidate for the mayoralty of Orihuela, in the next municipal elections to be held in May 2023.
Born in Almería in 1952, Mestre is a Deputy for Alicante, a former Air Force Lieutenant General. In addition to being head of the Canary Islands Air Command, he was the Chief of Staff of the Portuguese NATO Joint Command (Joint Command Lisbon) and in 2013 he was appointed Chief of Personnel Command, a position he held until his transfer to the reserve in 2015.
In the Congress of Deputies he is deputy spokesperson for the Defence Commission; a member of the Science, Innovation and Universities Commission; and a Full Member of the Spanish Delegation in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Mestre is a resident of the Oriolan village of La Murada .
The party currently has two councillors in the Municipal government, the nephew of the General Mestre, José Manuel Escolano, and Susi Aniorte, who bears the brunt of Vox’s opposition work in the Orihuela plenary sessions where she has a much more constant presence.
