Thousands of citizens without the right to vote. “Who is really Spanish or very Spanish?”

The Ombudsman also requested that the Constitutional Tribunal allow them to vote in the next parliamentary elections, which will be held on November 29.

Citizenship under the right of grandchildren

This is a group of descendants of Spaniards who obtained citizenship on the basis of the so-called grandchildren's rights, which is part of the Democratic Memory Act 2022.

It enabled children and grandchildren of Spaniards abroad to obtain citizenship - provided that their father, mother, grandfather or grandmother were Spaniards who emigrated for political, ideological, religious or sexual orientation reasons.

Shortly after the bill was passed by Parliament, the government issued an instruction to consulates that emigrant status for these reasons was presumed for all Spaniards who left the country between 1936 and 1955.

Complaint and judgment of the Supreme Court

The effects of this instruction were challenged by the Vox and Iustitia Europa parties, arguing that the instruction went beyond the scope of the Act, which raises concerns about the objectivity and transparency of the electoral process.

On October 12, the Supreme Court decided that because it had not been possible to verify which of the new citizens had been naturalized directly under the act and which - based on a subsequent government instruction - had not been verified before the voter list was closed, it maintained the previously issued suspension of their active electoral rights.

How many people does this decision affect?

According to government data, this decision affects over 163,000. people. Some of them, if they are able to prove that they obtained citizenship on the basis of the literal provisions of the Act, will be able to take part in the vote in November.

The Spanish government criticized the ruling but said it would abide by it. He argued that many of those people whose voting rights were suspended had taken part in previous regional and European elections.

The EFE agency recalled that the Spanish Ombudsman, Angel Gabilondo, emphasized even before the Supreme Court's ruling that having citizenship automatically entails the right to vote and appealed "not to open impossible paths to determining who is really Spanish, very Spanish, or even more Spanish."

He then added that since the state recognized someone as a Spanish citizen, this status could not be "revoked and restored depending on the day of the week."