Spain's Supreme Court keeps voting suspension for 163,020 'grandchildren law' citizens

The court's ruling

Spain's Supreme Court, through Section Four of the Sala de lo Contencioso-Administrativo, rejected the motions for reconsideration (recursos de reposición) filed by the State Attorney's Office (Abogacía del Estado) and kept in full the interim measures it adopted in September. Two rulings were issued, and one magistrate filed a dissenting opinion, according to El Confidencial. LaSexta notes that the section has six magistrates. The decision was notified on Monday, 12 October, a public holiday, after the court closed its deliberation over the weekend, according to EL PAÍS.

The measure bars the Oficina del Censo Electoral from registering in the Census of Absent Residents (CERA) anyone who obtained Spanish nationality by option under the Democratic Memory Law (Ley 20/2022) and is not yet registered. For those already registered, their electoral effects remain suspended for the general election formally called on 5 October.

Who is affected

The suspension would directly affect 163,020 people already registered on the CERA on 1 August 2026, the date the census for the 29 November election closed, according to documentation the State Attorney's Office submitted to the case. The CERA counted 2,747,688 registered voters abroad on that date, 17% more than at the July 2023 general election, according to ABC.

El Confidencial reports that nearly 170,000 people had been nationalized under the law by the end of August, with more than 96,000 registration requests still pending. The contested group comes from a Justice Ministry instruction that created a 'presumption of exile' for everyone who left Spain between 1936 and 1955, not only the children and grandchildren of exiles. The suspension was requested by the party Iustitia Europa and Vox, and EL PAÍS dates the measure to 8 September, while El Confidencial, LaSexta and ABC refer to 10 September. The Supreme Court originally limited the suspension to people naturalized under the instruction, but the consular directorate warned that separating the two groups was materially impossible before 1 January 2027.

Why the freeze stayed

The State Attorney argued that the required IT changes are still under development and that the consular registry cannot tell from its records which registrants were naturalized under the law and which under the instruction, without a manual check that could not be finished in time, according to ABC. It also said the early election made the review of the nearly 170,000 files ordered on 10 September materially impossible, according to LaSexta.

Prosecutors raised legal certainty concerns about using a census closed on 1 August, and warned that carrying out the order could produce a continuing, progressive suspension of registrations until the election and afterwards, according to sources cited by LaSexta. The court described the law as a real and well-founded danger to the electoral result, fearing that new registrations under the Memory Law could affect the result Spaniards want. LaSexta notes the irony that many affected people had already voted in earlier municipal, regional and general elections, an argument the government had used to press the court.

Exemption and next steps

The ruling carves out one exception. The suspension will not apply to people who obtain a specific certificate, issued by consular registry officials under their responsibility, showing that on 1 August 2026 they were born abroad to a Spanish-origin parent or grandparent who suffered political exile, according to El Confidencial.

For the regional and municipal elections in May, the census that counts is the one dated 1 January 2027, the same date the consular directorate said the two groups could not be separated before, according to EL PAÍS.