MADRID, Spain – The Supreme Court has given Justice Minister Félix Bolaños and Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares five days to provide the names of the 163,000 citizens naturalised under the grandchildren’s law who will be affected by the suspension of voting rights decreed as a precautionary measure by the Third Chamber. Through two orders, the court warns that if they have not provided the information by 3pm on 28 October, Albares and Bolaños will face a possible coercive fine, with the Supreme Court also reserving the possibility of deducing the appropriate testimony of particulars to demand the criminal liability that may correspond.
Spain’s Nov 29 Election: Who Can Vote Under ‘Grandchildren’s Law’?
The Supreme Court decided to provisionally suspend the right to active suffrage for those who availed themselves of the instruction issued by Sofía Puente to prove that they are descendants of Spanish political exiles and thereby access nationality, with the instruction presuming the status of political exile for all Spaniards who left the country between 1936 and 1955. The Supreme Court is studying the legality of this instruction and, in the meantime, has agreed to suspend the vote for those who obtained nationality through this route, though the Central Electoral Board, the Electoral Census Office and the Supreme Court still do not have a list of the citizens who must be prevented from voting on 29 November. The high court has therefore decided that, together with the electoral documentation sent to those registered in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents, a warning about this situation will be delivered, with the textual warning stating that the registration of these people in the census does not mean they may be able to exercise their right to vote, since only those persons with respect to whom the consular registry officials issue certification accrediting their status as born outside Spain to a father or mother, grandfather or grandmother who were originally Spanish and who suffered exile for political, ideological or belief or sexual orientation and identity reasons and who lost or renounced Spanish nationality may vote.
In any case, the Supreme Court has sent a request through the State Attorney’s Office for Bolaños and Albares to submit the nominal list of the 163,020 people affected, with the chamber warning that, in accordance with Article 112 of the Law on Contentious-Administrative Jurisdiction, if the five-day period ending at 3pm on 28 October 2026 passes without the nominal list being sent, the chamber could impose repeated fines of 1,000 euros and even criminal liabilities could derive.
Constitutional Court Refuses To Halt Voting Rights Suspension Under Grandchildren’s Law
This week, Albares acknowledged that it will be very difficult for consulates to carry out the corresponding checks in time to determine who is affected by the Supreme Court’s precautionary ruling, with the foreign minister assuring that as soon as his department received notification from the Supreme Court it sent a telegram to consulates with very precise instructions to act diligently, mobilising all necessary personnel to carry out the task, and stating that all means were being made available, concluding that it will not be for want of effort on their part.
