Supreme Court keeps the suspension in place

On Monday, 12 October, the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) rejected requests from the State Attorney's office (Abogacía del Estado) and the Public Prosecutor's Office (Fiscalía General) to lift the temporary suspension of voting rights for naturalized citizens who gained Spanish nationality under the 'ley de nietos'. That provision sits in the Democratic Memory Law and suspends the vote unless applicants prove they descend from exiles. The State Attorney's office puts the number of affected people at 163,020, while Félix Bolaños, the minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, cites about 160,000. Because the general election was brought forward to 29 November, the affected citizens will not be able to vote in it under the current ruling.

Government says it has exhausted its options

In an interview on the Al Rojo Vivo programme on La Sexta on Wednesday, 14 October, Bolaños said the State Attorney's office had studied alternatives and had done everything it could during the Supreme Court phase. He said the affected people themselves now have to launch legal action, which effectively closes the door on the government filing its own appeal to the Constitutional Court. He described the measure as a 'massive cut in rights' instigated by Vox and applauded by the Partido Popular.

There are very few days left, and the deadlines of the electoral law are very fast.

Speaking at a rally in Zaragoza, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez defended the voting rights of the naturalized grandchildren. He argued that no citizens should be treated as first or second class because the right and far right have candidates of the third kind.

We say that the grandchildren of the Republican exile have the same right to vote as the grandchildren of the Francoist regime.

Opposition and rival claims

Feijóo's Partido Popular applauded the Supreme Court decision, and Bolaños accused the party of embracing the discourse of the far right. The PP argues that electoral cleanliness was at risk and that the census may be contaminated by a ministry instruction that does not require proof that a naturalized person descends from an exile. Bolaños rejects this, saying the instruction dates from 2008, after the Historical Memory Law of 2007, and was applied under the government of Mariano Rajoy (PP) before being copied into the later law. In Santander, PP Senate spokesperson Alicia García accused the government of attacking the Supreme Court over the ruling.

The rules are not changed in the middle of the game, least of all when you are losing.

Consulates work through the lists

Since mid-September, Spain's consulates have been ordered by the Foreign Ministry to issue certificates for naturalized citizens who proved descent from exiles, according to El Periódico. Consular staff are now filling in an Excel spreadsheet covering tens of thousands of applicants, marking who submitted proof and who relied on a Justice Ministry instruction that relaxed the criteria. That instruction presumed exile for everyone who left Spain between 18 July 1936 and 31 December 1955. Diplomatic sources told the newspaper that a promised IT application to handle the process has not yet arrived. Official ministry sources said the ministry is complying with the law and applying the Supreme Court's precautionary measures with maximum diligence.

What comes next

Only the affected people can bring a challenge, and the census for the 29 November election closes within days. La Vanguardia reports that the Constitutional Court route cannot arrive in time to change the outcome of the vote. The suspension stays in force until the affected citizens prove their descent or the courts rule otherwise.