The Supreme Court also rejects suspending the vote of the 189,000 children of those nationalized by the 'grandchildren law'

The children of Spaniards naturalized by the law on grandchildren living abroad will be able to vote on 29-N. The Supreme Court has refused to extend to this group the suspension of the right to vote that it decreed in September for the children and grandchildren of emigration and exile who have obtained nationality with the Democratic Memory Law. The magistrates have rejected the request of Iustitia Europa and Vox, who demanded that the measure adopted by the judges for more than 163,000 nationalized as descendants of exile be extended in turn to the 189,678 children of these, nationalized by another section of the Memory Law that is not affected by the suspension of the vote agreed by the Supreme Court. The State Attorney's Office had opposed this possibility and alleged that extending the suspension of the right to vote would jeopardize compliance with the legal procedures for 29-N and could even affect the scrutiny. The court agrees on the first point due to the “short period of time” that remains until the elections.

The magistrates emphasize that the request from Vox and Iustitia Europa was raised “more than half of the electoral period had passed, a week before the start of the campaign”; and, in the case of naturalized citizens residing abroad, two weeks from the start of depositing the vote in the ballot box at the consulates. In this sense, they understand that starting now a process of reviewing the electoral census of Spaniards residing abroad (CERA) - "in addition to the questions raised by the material possibility of effective execution in the short period of time existing until the date of voting and its scrutiny" - is "contrary to the demands derived from the principles of legal security and electoral stability."

The court insists that the decisions it has adopted so far regarding the grandchildren “have been based on and are governed by the need to guarantee legal certainty, specified in the purity or certainty of the electoral roll that should be applied to the electoral processes and, therefore, of the electoral processes themselves, which are the central and fundamental framework where the fundamental right of political participation of citizens is developed.” And he emphasizes that last September, when he suspended the vote of naturalized citizens living abroad, the national scenario did not include an imminent electoral horizon.

The magistrates recall that at this moment the Electoral Boards, the Electoral Census Office and the Consular Administration “are in full development of the functions entrusted to them by the electoral legislation” and are “executing” the resolutions issued by the Supreme Court in September and October. “In fact, the Electoral Census Office, in its report dated October 28, indicated that there were still 30,482 unidentified records, in order to comply with the suspension of registration in the CERA agreed upon in our records, and that it was pending receiving additional information from the consulates for their identification in the aforementioned census,” they point out. And they add that, as far as the court is concerned, it is still “resolving the appeals that the parties in person are filing.”

Taking all these factors into account, the Supreme Court assures that “it has serious doubts about the viability” of also suspending the voting of the children of the nationalized grandchildren, because said measure should be accompanied by actions and guarantees such as “requirements to the Administration to identify those affected”, “summoning interested parties to appear and present allegations”; as well as “other measures for the conservation and custody of the electoral documentation corresponding to the people whose registration in the CERA has been agreed.” Thus, the magistrates emphasize that the remaining electoral period “is so short that it allows us to question the possibility of its execution in good time”; among other reasons, he emphasizes, because “it depends on the actions of multiple administrations and third parties, in terms that the Chamber cannot foresee.” They also emphasize that the number of children of those naturalized (189,678) is “higher” than the number of grandchildren who already have the vote suspended (162,454).

Thus, the magistrates explain that, in this case, the “assessment of the different interests in conflict must opt ​​for the denial of the precautionary claim.” In his opinion, accepting the request of Vox and Iustitia Europa could generate a “serious disturbance of general interests.”

Government sources maintain that Pedro Sánchez's Executive has celebrated the decision adopted by the Supreme Court, although they point out that in La Moncloa they regret that the reasoning presented this Monday has not been applied to the Spaniards who obtained nationality in application of the Democratic Memory Law who currently have their right to vote suspended.

The 189,000 children of the 'grandchildren'

The data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs incorporated into the procedure by the State Attorney's Office put at more than 189,000 people who have been nationalized due to the assumption of the Memory Law on which the Supreme Court was now focusing. In September, the high court ordered the exclusion from the census of more than 163,000 new Spaniards who acquired nationality under the umbrella of section 1.1. of the eighth additional provision of the Memory Law, which recognizes the right to nationality, among others, to the children and grandchildren of those who have lost it after having gone into exile for political, ideological or sexual orientation reasons. But that decision left within the census the children of those whose vote was suspended and who have become naturalized thanks to them. The latter - in many cases great-grandchildren of Spaniards who went into exile or emigrated in the post-war period - have also acquired nationality through the Memory Law, but under one section, 1.b of the eighth additional provision. This group is the one on which Iustitia and Vox had demanded that the suspension of the vote be extended.

That section 1.b — called Annex III in the procedures regulated by the Justice instruction — recognizes the right to be Spanish of “the sons and daughters of legal age of those Spaniards whose nationality was recognized” by the Historical Memory Law of 2007 or by section 1 of the eighth additional provision of the Memory Law of 2022 itself. According to the data provided by Foreign Affairs, in the census of August 1, which counts for the elections of the 29-N, there are 189,678 Spaniards nationalized in this way, but this figure also includes the children of those who obtained nationality through the Historical Memory Law of 2007, which is not under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court.

The Government does not have a figure of how many of those registered in the CERA have obtained nationality through the 2022 rule and how many through the 2007 rule, but the State Attorney's Office has warned that the latter are "not at all a residual group." In response to a question posed in Congress by PP deputy José Antonio Bermúdez de Castro, incorporated into the procedure followed in the Supreme Court, the Government put the total number of nationalized people under the 2007 Historical Memory Law of 2007 at 373,616 in February 2023, but there is no data on how many currently reside outside of Spain and are registered in the CERA.