Our readers keep asking us about this story without quite grasping what the story actually is, or why it has caused such a stir. That is hardly surprising: in the space of three months it has passed through Spain’s Supreme Court, its Constitutional Court, the electoral authority and a Madrid criminal court, with a new figure emerging almost every week. Here, we set out what has happened, step by step.
Spain Expat Press Editorial Team
The story in a sentence
Around 163,000 new Spanish citizens living abroad will be barred from voting in the general election on 29 November, after the Supreme Court found that they may have been granted citizenship on terms that went beyond what the law allowed.
What is the ‘grandchildren’s law’?
During the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship that followed, large numbers of Spaniards were forced to fleethe country. Many lost their Spanish nationality as a result.
In 2022, parliament passed the Democratic Memory Law, which includes a provision allowing the children and grandchildren of those exiles to claim Spanish citizenship. It quickly became known as the ley de nietos, or ‘grandchildren’s law’.
Demand has been enormous, particularly in Latin America – Argentina, Cuba and Mexico chief among them. More than two million people have applied.
Where does the problem lie?
The law refers specifically to those who went into exile. But proving today why a grandparent left Spain 80 years ago is close to impossible.
To get round this, the Justice Ministry issued guidelines on how the law should be applied. In effect, they said: anyone whose forebear left Spain between 1936 and 1955 would be presumed to have been an exile, with no need for proof.
By way of example: a grandfather who emigrated to Argentina in 1950 in search of work would, under that guideline, also count as an exile.
- Critics argue that this amounts to rewriting the law by the back door: parliament legislated for those who fled, not for everyone who emigrated.
- Defenders counter that without such a presumption the right would be meaningless, since almost no one could prove it – and point out that a near-identical approach was used in 2008 without controversy.
Where does Óscar Puente’s family come in?
A point worth correcting: it is not the former Transport Minister’s brother but his sister, Sofía Puente, who is at the centre of this. In 2022 she was the senior Justice Ministry official who signed the guidelines.
The campaign group Hazte Oír has filed a criminal complaint against her, and a Madrid judge has agreed to investigate whether an offence was committed. An investigation, however, is not a finding of guilt. Prosecutors argued there was no case to answer, and a similar complaint was dismissed in 2024. Her brother has dismissed the affair as an attack orchestrated by the far right.
Why does any of this matter at the ballot box?
Anyone who becomes a Spanish citizen gains the right to vote. Those who live abroad are placed on a special register of overseas voters, known as the CERA.
That register has grown by some 444,000 people since the last general election in 2023.
- Vox, the hard-right party, claims the government was trying to manufacture votes in its favour, and has gone as far as calling it a pucherazo – vote-rigging.
- The Socialist-led government replies that nobody can know how anyone will vote, and that turnout among overseas voters is so low – roughly one in ten in 2023 – that it could not swing the result.
A further criticism comes up again and again. Vox and the conservative Popular Party (PP) object that people who have never set foot in Spain will be able to vote. As the PP puts it, someone living in Buenos Aires or Havana could end up voting in Zamora or Almería without ever having been there, helping to decide who represents that province in parliament. The Vox leader, Santiago Abascal, has spoken of passports being handed out “to people who have never lived in Spain”.
The government’s answer is that these are Spanish citizens with full rights, and that any Spaniard living abroad is entitled to vote, whether born in Spain or not. The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has accused the PP and Vox of trying to strip thousands of Spaniards of their vote.
What have the courts decided?
- September. Vox and the small party Iustitia Europa took the matter to the Supreme Court, which ruled that while it examines the case, the voting rights of those who gained citizenship under the guideline would be suspended.
- October. The government asked the court to reconsider. It refused. The upshot: around 163,000 people will not vote on 29 November. Only about 900 have been able to prove that a forebear genuinely fled.
- October. Spain’s ombudsman appealed to the Constitutional Court, which declined to intervene on the grounds that the Supreme Court had not yet finished its work.
- November. Vox asked for the suspension to be extended to the adult children of the new citizens – some 190,000 people. The Supreme Court said no: there is simply not enough time to vet them before polling day.
Who votes on 29 November?
- Cannot vote: new citizens under the ‘grandchildren’s law’ living abroad (around 163,000).
- Can vote: those who proved a grandparent fled (around 900).
- Can vote: new citizens under the law who live in Spain.
- Can vote: the adult children of the ‘grandchildren’ (around 190,000).
- Can vote: all other Spaniards, wherever they live.
The paradox: the grandchild cannot vote, but the great-grandchild can
This is perhaps the most striking twist in the whole saga. Take a family spanning three generations:
- The grandfather left Spain between 1936 and 1955.
- The grandchild became Spanish thanks to the guideline presuming he was an exile. Cannot vote.
- The grandchild’s son or daughter became Spanish because their parent already was. Can vote.
In other words, the person with the original claim is barred, while the person who inherited it from them is not.
Why? Quite simply, time has run out. The children number almost 190,000, sit on a separate list, and thousands of them have not even been identified. Checking each case before 29 November is impossible. The Supreme Court itself concedes that the outcome defies logic, but would rather not strip anyone of the vote without first examining their case.
- Vox argues it is not that difficult: if only some 900 people proved a grandparent fled, only the children of those 900 should be allowed to vote.
- The government has welcomed the ruling, insisting that these are Spaniards with every right to vote.
Three things that have NOT happened
- Nobody has lost their Spanish citizenship. Only the right to vote has been frozen.
- The law remains in force. Citizenship is still being granted.
- There is no final ruling. Everything so far is provisional. The Supreme Court’s definitive judgment is expected to come after the election.
The pub version
The government made it easy for the grandchildren of people who left Spain between 1936 and 1955 to become Spanish. Vox said this went further than the law allowed and was designed to win votes. For now, the Supreme Court has partly sided with Vox: it has frozen the vote of 163,000 people, but is letting their children – and those living in Spain – cast a ballot. The final word will come after 29 November.
