Spain: Justice allows a vote to be taken on children of nationals who are prevented from doing so

O Spain's Supreme Court today ruled that 189,678 children of nationals under the country's historical memory laws may vote in the elections of 29 November, unlike 163,000 of those nationalized.

On 12 October, the same court confirmed that some 163,000 persons with Spanish nationality acquired under the 2022 Democratic Memory Act will not be able to vote in early elections this month.

The law grants the right to Spanish nationality to children and grandchildren of exiles between 1936 and 1955, during the civil war of 1936-1939 and the first years of French dictatorship that followed, for political, ideological reasons, belief or sexual orientation.

A week after the entry into force of the law in October 2022, the Spanish consulates and embassies received guidance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) saying that “the exile of all persons who left Spain between 1936 and 1955 will be assumed to live abroad.

In response to complaints submitted by the Vox (extreme right) and Iustitia Europa parties (without parliamentary representation), the Supreme Court has suspended in a way that prevents the voting rights of persons acquiring nationality under the law of 2022 and has asked the Central Electoral Board (similar to the Portuguese national election committee) for consulates to confirm, on a case-by-case basis, that they are effectively in question descendants of exiles, in accordance with the legislation established.

The argument of the judges and complainants is that the guidance subsequently sent by the MNE is neither a law nor comparable and the Supreme considered there to be “a founded, real and serious danger of seriously affecting the objectivity and transparency of the electoral process.”.

Later, Vox and Iustitia Europa asked the Supreme for the suspension of the right to vote to be extended also to the children of these nationals, who obtain Spanish nationality through another article of the law.

In a decision cited by various media outlets, the Supreme Court today denied the request of the two parties, invoking the impossibility of implementing any such decision less than a month from the elections.

On the other hand, part of the 189,678 people who would be potentially affected obtained Spanish nationality under the 2007 historical memory law, which is not under any suspicion.

Thus, according to the same sources, unlike parents, some children of nationalized by the law of 2022 may vote on November 29.

On the other hand, also today, the Supreme Court rejected the appeals of various associations and individuals and maintained the suspension of the vote of about 163,000 nationalized under the same law.

The State Attorney’s Office, on behalf of the Government, argued that the suspension violates a fundamental right and would render irreversible this “injury to the right to suffrage”.

On October 12, the Supreme replied that the right of suffrage “is not an absolute right” and is “subject to general interests”, among which “to preserve the veracity and absence of irregularities in the electoral census, which should prevail over the private interest of the citizen”.

The magistrates also rejected the principle that the right to vote is inseparable from obtaining nationality.

For Vox, fraudulent nationalities are being granted and there is a risk of electoral manipulation in small circles, in a suspicion also launched and publicly endorsed in various interventions by leaders of the People's Party (PP, right), the greatest force of opposition.

The Spanish who live and vote abroad are registered in a national constituency (in a province), and there are no circles for emigration.

The government, led by the Socialists, regretted the Supreme's decision and considered that it was a violation of a fundamental right, a breach of democracy and the establishment that there are "first and second-rate Spanish".